August 2002

U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Executive Summary | News Release

Download the full report. (556 KB, PDF)

Addendum – Newer Data Available for 2002: Exceedances for 20 States and the District of Columbia (18 KB, PDF)

Ground-level ozone or smog is a dangerous respiratory irritant that affects the health of millions of Americans each year. More than half of all Americans reside in places where smog levels are high enough to cause asthma attacks, hospital visits, decreased lung function, coughing, wheezing, and eye and throat irritation. Recent studies have even linked smog with mortality from strokes and with the onset of asthma in children and adults. Despite the progress made as a result of the 1970 landmark public health law – the Clean Air Act – our cities, suburbs and even our national parks are shrouded in smog for much of the summer.

Danger in the Air is the third annual compilation of data from a network of more than a thousand ozone monitors across the nation. Our findings demonstrate a need for aggressive action to reduce emissions of the pollutants that cause smog formation. Specifically, we found that:

• During the 2001 ozone season, the national health standard for ozone smog was exceeded on no fewer than 4,634 occasions at monitors in 42 states and the District of Columbia.
  
  
• The old, less-protective 1-hour ozone standard was exceeded on at least 533 occasions in 31 states and the District of Columbia.
• 2001 was slightly smoggier than 2000, with roughly 10.3% more exceedances nationwide.
  
  
• Not surprisingly, California, Pennsylvania and Texas were the smoggiest states based on the number of exceedances of the health standard. Behind these states were Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan and Virginia.
  
  
• The states with the highest number of “smog days”—days during which at least one exceedance of the 8-hour standard was recorded—included California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
  
  
• People in San Bernardino County, California and Harris County, Texas were exposed to the highest concentrations of smog in the nation.
  
  
• Looking at the data regionally, the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states had significantly more smog in 2001 than in 2000, while the Southeast and Western states had less smog in 2001 than in 2000.

Preliminary 2002 Data: Due to the timing of this year’s report, we were able to include a limited amount of data for the current ozone season as well. We gathered preliminary ozone data from 20 states and the District of Columbia and found that:

• Even with the smog season still in full swing, the number of ozone exceedances recorded in these 21 states combined is nearly double the number in those states for all of 2000 and 23% more than recorded in these states in all of 2001.
  
  
• As of August 11, the state of Indiana had already experienced 432 ozone exceedances, more than quadruple the number recorded in either 2000 or 2001.
  
  
• As of August 3, the state of North Carolina had already recorded 405 8-hour ozone exceedances, compared to 182 throughout the entire 2001 ozone season.
  
  
• As of August 11, the state of Illinois had already experienced 175 ozone exceedances, again more than quadruple the number recorded in either 2000 or 2001.
  
  
• As of August 12, the state of South Carolina had already experienced 163 exceedances, triple the number from all of 2001.
  
  
• Other states that have already seen more ozone exceedances in 2002 than in the entire ozone seasons of 2000 and 2001 include: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Ironically, this report comes as the White House is preparing to execute the most radical weakening of our clean air protections in the 30-year history of the Clean Air Act. After a massive lobbying effort by the coal, oil, and manufacturing industries, the Bush administration is finalizing a plan to weaken the rules known as New Source Review, effectively reducing the number of facilities required to install modern emissions control technology. Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) argues that it cannot calculate the effect of this policy change, gutting the New Source Review program would allow power plants, refineries and other facilities to emit millions of tons of additional smog-forming pollutants into our already smoggy skies.

Rather than weakening the Clean Air Act, policy makers and regulators should strive to clear the smog out of our skies by taking real steps to reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution from its largest sources, motor vehicles and electric power plants. The U.S. EPA, state environmental agencies and other policy makers should:

• Aggressively enforce the New Source Review program of the Clean Air Act and oppose any regulatory weakening of this program.
  
  
• Make timely designations of areas that are out of attainment with the national health standard for ozone.
  
  
• Adopt a comprehensive new program to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and mercury from power plants, such as the one proposed by the authors of the Clean Power Act, which was passed this year by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
  
  
• Adopt federal emission standards for non-road diesel engines used in construction and farm equipment, as well as new standards for the diesel fuel that is used in these engines.
  
  
• Adopt mandates and incentive programs to stimulate the market for advanced technology vehicles such as electric, fuel cell and hybrid cars.