Los Angeles, CA—At a public hearing in Los Angeles today, scientists, public health
professionals, local residents, environmental advocates and elected officials all
called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strengthen its proposed
air quality standards for deadly ozone smog pollution.
“Ozone can harm even the healthiest lungs,” said Jason
Barbose, Advocate with Environment California. “EPA needs to significantly strengthen the national air quality
standards for ozone so we can all breathe easier,” continued Barbose.
Barbose was one of several witnesses who testified at the
EPA hearing, where environmental and 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.
“The more we learn about ozone exposure, the more we
understand how dangerous it is,” said Linda Weiner, Director of Air Quality
Advocacy with the American Lung Association of California. “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,” continued Weiner.
Ozone is a powerful pollutant that can burn our lungs and
airways, causing health effects ranging from coughing and wheezing to asthma
attacks and even premature death. Children, teenagers, senior citizens, and people with asthma,
bronchitis, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are
particularly vulnerable to the health effects of ozone.
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 0.084
parts per million (ppm) averaged over an eight hour period. A decade of scientific studies has found health
impacts of breathing ozone at levels lower than the current air quality
standard.
In 2006,
the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, a group of expert outside
scientists who 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.
Environment
California, the American Lung Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Thoracic
Society, American Public Health Association, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of
America, and many other public health and environmental experts have
recommended a standard of 0.060 ppm from 0.084. According to EPA, lowering the ozone health standard to <0.065
compared to ozone concentrations in 2004 would have lowered the mortality rate
from 14 to 2 people per one million in Los
Angeles, a seven-fold improvement.
“EPA
needs to focus on its mission of protecting the environment and human health
and listen less to the demands of polluters that they weaken protections American
families rely on every day,” said Carl Zichella, Sierra Club’s regional staff
director for California, Nevada and Hawaii.
On June 20, however, EPA proposed marginally improving the
national air quality standard for ozone to within a range of 0.070 to 0.075
ppm, weaker than what the agency’s scientific advisors say is necessary to
protect public health. Additionally, EPA
is accepting comments on the current standard, which is clearly not protective
of public health. The oil industry,
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.
“Ozone pollution has a serious impact on human health in
Los Angeles, making it difficult and dangerous
to breathe,” said Janea Scott, an Environmental Defense staff attorney in Los Angeles. “EPA must
heed the unanimous advice of its own expert scientists by
substantially strengthening the federal health standard for ozone
to protect the health of our children, and of all the Los Angelenos
hard hit by smog pollution."
EPA is accepting public comments on its proposal through
October 9 and must issue a final ozone standard by March 2008. EPA scheduled
additional hearings in Philadelphia on August 30th
and in Chicago, Atlanta,
and Houston on
September 5th.
“The science is clear, and the law is clear,” stated Barbose. “EPA should reject industry pressure to
maintain the status quo and instead adopt the most protective ozone standard
recommended by its scientific advisors.”
