EPA Announces Particulate Pollution Standards that Fail to Protect Human Health from Death and Disease

FOR IMMEDIATE USE

CONTACT: 
Vickie Patton 720-837-6239, patton@ed.org;
John Balbus 301-908-8186, jbalbus@ed.org; or
Meg Little 202-572-3387, mlittle@ed.org

WASHINGTON, DC (September 21, 2006) – Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a final decision today on the nation’s particulate pollution air quality standards that fails to protect public health from the death and disease associated with this dangerous pollutant.   Like EPA’s flawed proposal announced in December, the Agency declined to strengthen the nation’s annual standard for “fine” particulate pollution concentrations – a standard that must be lowered to more effectively protect human health.

EPA’s decision ignores the advice of its own committee of expert scientists, the recommendations of 100 leading health scientists, and an unprecedented coalition of national medical and health associations.    Fine particulate air pollution is comprised of microscopic particles about thirty times smaller than the width of a human hair that originate primarily from tailpipes and smokestacks and can be breathed deeply into the body’s respiratory tract. The current annual fine particle standard is 15 micrograms per cubic meter.

EPA finalized its proposal to lower the 24-hour fine particle standard (from the current 65 micrograms per cubic meter to 35 micrograms per cubic meter) and claims that is sufficient. It is not. EPA’s risk assessment data and modeling analyses show that the annual fine particulate pollution standard must be lowered to prevent the preponderance of premature deaths from particulate pollution and to spur meaningful pollution cuts, including further region wide reductions from coal-fired power plants across the eastern United States.   

“EPA’s action is truly breath-taking in ignoring the dangerous impact of particulate pollution on American’s hearts and lungs,” said Dr. John Balbus, the health program director for Environmental Defense and co-founder of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment.  “By ignoring medical science, EPA is fundamentally failing to protect Americans from the serious death and disease associated with particulate pollution.”

EPA’s action ignores: the recommendations of EPA’s own Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, the advice of EPA’s own Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, the recommendations of 100 leading research scientists and physicians, and the unprecedented comments of some two dozen national and local health organizations. The EPA Office of Research and Development concluded in a July 2006 report that the most recent scientific studies continue to underscore and strengthen evidence for the serious adverse health effects of particulate pollution.

More than 2000 peer-reviewed scientific studies examining the health effects of particulate pollution have been published since the EPA last updated the nation’s health standards in 1997.  These studies clearly show that particulate pollution imposes a heavy burden on human health at levels well below the current standards.  

The major health effects of breathing particulate pollution include premature deaths, heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, strokes, lung cancer, reduced lung function, and asthma attacks. This burden is measured in thousands of deaths, hospital admissions, doctor visits, and millions of lost school and work days.