Atlanta, GA—At
a public hearing in Atlanta
today, public health advocates called on the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to strengthen its proposed air quality standards for ozone (smog
pollution).
“Ozone can harm even the healthiest lungs,” said Jeanette
Gayer, with Environment Georgia. “EPA
needs to significantly strengthen the national air quality standards for ozone
so we can all breathe easier.”
Gayer was one of several witnesses who testified at the EPA
hearing where public health advocates described the health effects of ozone
exposure, particularly on children, and highlighted the scientific consensus on
the need to substantially strengthen the health-based air quality standards for
ozone. EPA scheduled additional hearings
in Los Angeles and Philadelphia on August 30 and in Chicago and
Houston on September 5.
“Ozone is a powerful pollutant that can burn our lungs” said
June Deen with the American Lung Association - Southeast Region. “Ozone
exposure may lead to shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing and coughing,
increased risk of asthma attacks and even premature death. Children, senior
citizens and people with respiratory disease are particularly vulnerable to the
health effects of ozone.”
“The more we learn about ozone exposure, the more we
understand how dangerous it is,” said Patty Durand, Sierra Club/GA Chapter.
“That’s why EPA’s scientific advisors found no scientific justification for
retaining the current ozone standard and recommended strengthening it to
protect public health.”
Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA must set air quality
standards at levels that protect public health, including sensitive
populations, with an adequate margin of safety. In 1997, EPA set the national
air quality standard for ozone at 0.08 parts per million (ppm) averaged over an
eight hour period. In 2006, the Clean
Air Scientific Advisory Committee, which is chartered under the Clean Air Act
to advise the EPA administrator on air quality standards, unanimously
recommended strengthening the ozone standard to within the range of 0.060 to
0.070 ppm.
Mothers & Others
for Clean Air, the American Lung Association, The Sierra Club, American
Thoracic Society, Environment Georgia, Physicians for Social Responsibility and
other public health and environmental experts have recommended a standard of
0.060 ppm.
On June 20, however, EPA proposed strengthening the national
air quality standard for ozone to within a range of 0.070 to 0.075 ppm, not
enough to meet the recommendations deemed necessary to protect public health by
the agency’s scientific advisors.
“While EPA’s proposal is stronger than the current ozone
standard, it fails to protect all Americans from the harmful effects of air
pollution,” said Ed Arnold of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
“Big oil, electric utilities, and other powerful interests
that would be affected by stronger ozone standards are lobbying hard to
convince EPA to keep the ozone standards as weak as possible or not change them
at all.”
“The science is clear, and the law is clear,” said Rebecca
Watts Hull, Mothers & Others for Clean Air program manager at the Georgia
Conservancy. “EPA should reject
industry pressure to maintain the status quo and instead adopt the most
protective ozone standard recommended by its scientific advisors.”
EPA is accepting public comments on its proposal through
October 9 and must issue a final ozone standard by March 2008.
