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News Room
U.S. PIRG News Release
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For Immediate
Release:
October 3,
2002
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New
Report Finds Cancer Risk From Air Pollution Nearly 500 Times Greater Than
Clean Air Act Standard
Americans
on average face a one-in-2,100 risk of developing cancer in their lifetimes
from breathing pollutants in the outdoor air, which is nearly 500 times greater
than the health-protective standard established in the Clean Air Act, according
to an analysis of EPA air toxics data released today by U.S. PIRG. Eighty-nine
percent of this added cancer risk is from the filthy soot released by diesel-powered
trucks, buses, and construction and farm equipment.
Dangers
of Diesel: How Diesel Soot and Other Air Toxics Increase Americans' Risk of
Cancer comes as the Bush administration faces crucial decisions on
new standards for dirty diesel construction and farm equipment and their fuel.
"This is an unacceptable cancer threat to Americans, but it's one that we
can virtually eliminate," said U.S. PIRG Clean Air Advocate Emily Figdor.
"Step one is for the Bush administration to continue to implement the tough
clean air standards on the books for diesel trucks and buses and their fuel.
Step two is for the administration to adopt strong new standards for the diesel
engines and fuel that power construction and farm equipment."
U.S. PIRG analyzed recently
released EPA data from 1996, the most recent and comprehensive data available,
to estimate the potential cancer risks associated with exposure to the 33
air toxics—pollutants that can cause cancer, birth defects, and other
serious adverse health impacts—that pose the greatest public health risk
in urban areas. The Clean Air Act set the goal of reducing the cancer risk
from air toxics to less than one-in-one million. The report estimates national,
state, and county risks and compares them to this cancer benchmark to gauge
how well we are doing at meeting our clean air standards. However, the report
does not consider the serious non-cancer health effects associated with the
pollutants and, as a result, underestimates their health impacts.
In addition to finding
that most of the potential cancer risk from air pollution results from diesel
soot, other key findings for the year studied include the following:
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Cars, trucks, and
non-road engines released more than half-a-million tons of diesel soot
into the outdoor air. Sixty-five percent of these emissions were from
construction equipment and other non-road diesel engines. Diesel soot
has been linked to lung cancer and triggers asthma and other adverse respiratory
effects. The fine particles in diesel soot also can exacerbate existing
heart and lung disease and lead to premature death.
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Americans in every
state and county in the continental U.S. were exposed to diesel soot
at levels that far exceeded the one-in-one million standard established
in the Clean Air Act. On average, Americans breathed levels of diesel
soot more than 425 times the cancer benchmark concentration. Risks were
highest in New York, New Jersey, the District of Columbia and Maryland.
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Cars, trucks, and
non-road engines released more than 250,000 tons of benzene into
the environment or 78 percent of total benzene emissions. Benzene causes
leukemia and is associated with anemia and damage to the immune system.
Benzene also may impair fertility in women and cause adverse effects on
child development.
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Americans on average
were exposed to benzene emissions at levels that exceeded the cancer
benchmark concentration by 11 times, with residents of New York, the District
of Columbia, Maryland, and Minnesota facing the highest risks.
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Cars, trucks, and
non-road engines released more than 165,000 tons of formaldehyde
into the environment or 56 percent of total formaldehyde emissions. Formaldehyde
may cause lung, nose, and throat cancers, as well as adverse respiratory
effects.
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Americans on average
were exposed to formaldehyde emissions at levels 12 times the cancer
benchmark concentration in 1996, with residents of New York, the District
of Columbia, New Jersey, and California facing the highest risks.
To reduce Americans' exposure
to cancer-causing air pollutants, it's crucial that we clean up dirty diesel
engines and their fuels.
U.S. PIRG applauded EPA
for its commitment to fully implement landmark standards, adopted in 2001,
for diesel trucks and buses. These standards will slash diesel emissions from
trucks and buses by more than 90 percent, the equivalent of taking 13 million
of the nation's trucks and buses off the roads. In addition to reducing the
cancer risk from exposure to diesel exhaust, EPA estimates that the standards
will prevent 360,000 asthma attacks and 8,300 premature deaths each year.
EPA is in the process
of developing new standards for diesel construction and farm equipment and
their fuel, with a formal proposal due out early next year. The exhaust from
these "non-road" diesel engines contributes an astounding 60 percent of the
added cancer risk from air pollution nationally. U.S. PIRG called on EPA to
issue standards for these engines equivalent to the truck standards and to
implement them in the same time frame. Such standards could prevent another
180,000 asthma attacks and 8,500 premature deaths each year and could save
$67 billion in health care costs annually, according to a recent report by
state and local air quality officials.
As part of this non-road
diesel proposal, the administration is considering developing an emission-trading
program between the truck and non-road sectors.
"We remain concerned that
a market-based trading program could undermine the crucial emissions reductions
required for diesel trucks and buses and compromise the clean up of non-road
diesel engines," said U.S. PIRG's Figdor. "We plan to scrutinize any trading
proposal very carefully."
U.S. PIRG also called
on EPA to stop dragging its feet and fulfill its Clean Air Act mandate to
control other toxic emissions from mobile sources and their fuels by adopting
regulations to establish a nationwide fuel benzene cap; expand the use of
modern emission controls on old diesel engines and non-road gasoline engines;
and increase the number of intrinsically clean, advanced technology vehicles,
like hybrid electric cars, on the roads.
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.
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