Clean Air and Water Reports
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Executive Summary
While air quality has improved in the U.S. since the inception of
the Clean Air Act in 1970, more than 88 million Americans still live in
areas with unsafe levels of fine particle pollution. Fine particle
pollution is one of the nation’s most pervasive air pollutants and its
most deadly, causing tens of thousands of premature deaths every year.
This report examines levels of fine particle pollution in cities and
towns nationwide in 2004 and finds that fine particles continue to pose
a grave health threat to Americans.
Fine particle, or “soot,”
pollution can cause serious respiratory and cardiovascular problems,
including asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer, and
premature death. Moreover, recent scientific studies show that such
adverse effects occur at levels below the current national health-based
air quality standards, which include an annual standard of 15
micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) and a daily standard of 65 µg/m3.
Combustion sources such as coal-fired power plants and diesel engines
are the largest source of fine particle pollution.
This report
is based on a compilation of 2004 data from the nation’s network of
fine particle air quality monitors, as detailed by the state
environmental agencies we surveyed. Key findings include the following: •
In 2004, fine particle pollution exceeded the annual and/or daily
national health standard at air quality monitors in 55 small,
mid-sized, and large metropolitan areas located in 21 states and home
to 96 million people. States with exceedances of both standards
included California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Utah.
• In 2004,
fine particle pollution exceeded the annual national health standard in
43 metropolitan areas crossing 21 states’ borders. Riverside- San
Bernardino-Ontario, a large metropolitan area in California, had the
worst annual fine particle pollution of any metropolitan area, with a
maximum average annual level nearly 50 percent higher than the health
standard. Among mid-sized and small metropolitan areas, Bakersfield and
the Hanford-Corcoran areas in California had the worst annual fine
particle pollution.
• In 2004, fine particle pollution exceeded
the daily national health standard in 20 metropolitan areas crossing 10
states’ borders. Fine particle pollution in these areas spiked above
the standard 92 times on 45 days.
• Among the states, Utah
suffered the most spikes in fine particle pollution due to a
winter-time temperature inversion, with 47 exceedances of the daily
standard on 18 days in January and February of 2004. California
experienced spikes in fine particle pollution on 16 days, recording 30
exceedances in cities and towns across the state.
• Of the
largest metropolitan areas, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania experienced the
most days with spikes in fine particle pollution, recording seven
exceedances on seven different days. The Riverside-San
Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area in California ranked second among
the largest metropolitan areas, recording 14 exceedances on six
different days.
• Logan, a small metropolitan area on the border
of Utah and Idaho, suffered the most spikes in fine particle pollution
of any metropolitan area in the country—17 exceedances on 17 days. The
Logan metropolitan area also recorded one of the highest exceedances in
2004, a maximum spike of 132.8, more than double the health standard.
Unfortunately,
the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review program, which is critical to
reducing fine particle pollution from aging power plants, continues to
come under attack. A recent analysis found that eliminating the program
would cut short the lives of 70,000 Americans in the next two decades,
as a result of higher levels of fine particle pollution in the air than
current law permits. Policymakers should reject weakening changes to
the program and instead enforce the law.
Rather than take
additional steps to further limit levels of fine particle pollution in
our air, however, the Bush administration recently proposed to maintain
the status quo. Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) must set air quality standards at levels that protect
public health, including the health of sensitive populations, with an
adequate margin of safety. EPA also must review the standards every
five years to ensure they reflect the latest scientific knowledge and
update the standards as needed.
EPA staff scientists and the
Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, an independent review
committee, separately concluded in 2005 that the current standards do
not adequately protect public health and recommended substantially
strengthening the standards. The Bush administration, however,
disregarded the advice of these experts, proposing in December 2005 to
maintain the annual health standard of 15 µg/m3 and slightly lower the
daily health standard from 65 µg/m3 to 35 µg/m3.
Given the
extent of fine particle pollution in the U.S. and the science showing
serious adverse health effects below the current fine particle
standards, the Bush administration should adopt an annual standard no
higher than 12 µg/m3 and a daily standard no higher than 25 µg/m3 when
it finalizes the standards in September 2006.
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