|
Home
Browse
recent news releases by issue:
Find an expert
or
read
staff
profiles:
Contact the news room:
For more information or to arrange an interview with an expert from U.S.
PIRG contact:
Or sign up here to get regular
updates from the news room.
Find
a state PIRG or regional U.S. PIRG office for
local experts:
|
News Room
For
Immediate Release:
August 29, 2002 |
|
Annual
Summer Smog Study Shows Persistent Public Health Threat In Nearly Every State:
EPA Changes
to Clean Air Regulations Would Exacerbate Already Dire Problem
Smog
monitors in 42 states and the District of Columbia recorded more than 4,600
instances during which Americans were exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution
in 2001, with Houston, Texas and San Bernardino, Cal. residents hardest hit,
according to the Danger
In The Air study released today by U.S. PIRG. Moreover, partial
2002 data shows that the number of exceedances will triple or even quadruple
in some states compared to 2001. The report comes as the White House reviews
final regulations making it easier for major smog sources like power plants
and refineries to avoid pollution clean-up.
“Millions
of Americans have felt the impacts of 2002’s brutal smog season,” said U.S.
PIRG Staff Attorney Rebecca Stanfield, co-author of the report. “If they’re
breathing the same air we are, the Bush administration should scrap its proposal
to let polluters off the hook,” she continued.
Ground-level
ozone or “smog” is a dangerous respiratory irritant that affects the health
of millions of Americans each year. Mountains of research have established
a link between smog levels and asthma attacks numbering in the millions each
year. Recent studies have even linked smog with mortality from strokes and
with the onset of asthma in children and adults.
Danger
In The Air contains data from a network of more than a thousand
ozone monitors across the nation. Among the reports findings are:
-
During
the 2001 ozone season, the national health standard for ozone of .08 parts
per million averaged over an 8-hour period 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 of .12 parts per million was
exceeded on at least 533 occasions in 31 states and the District of Columbia.
-
2001
saw roughly 10.3% more exceedances of the health standard nationwide than
2000.
-
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, Tex.
were exposed to the highest concentrations of smog in the nation.
-
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.
In
addition to summarizing data from 2001, U.S. PIRG analyzed preliminary 2002
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 20 states combined is more than double the number in those
states for all of 2000 and 60% 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 13, the state of North Carolina had already recorded 544
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 27, the state of South Carolina had already experienced
174 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: Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, New Jersey, New
York, New Hampshire, Virginia, West Virginia, Iowa and Vermont.
“While
there are many factors contributing to the ups and downs of smog levels, the
one factor we can control is the amount of smog-forming pollution we put into
the air,” said Stanfield. “We may have to live with the heat and the geography
we’re given, but Americans don’t have to live with this smog crisis. We have
pollution control technologies that can cut emissions to a tiny fraction of
current levels if the political will is there to enforce the law,” she continued.
The
report suggests five policy solutions to begin to solve the smog problem,
including:
-
Aggressive
enforcement of the Clean Air Act's New Source Review program by both states
and the U.S. EPA.
-
Timely
designations of areas that are out of attainment with the national health
standard for ozone by U.S. EPA.
-
Adoption
of 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, passed this summer by the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee.
-
Adoption
of 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.
U.S.
PIRG is the national lobbying office for the state Public Interest Research
Groups. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy
organizations.
|
|
218 D St., SE