EPA

The U.S. EPA is NOT doing enough to ensure that the air you breathe won't threaten your health and the health of your family and friends.

Background:

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 lung 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 0.08 parts per million (ppm) averaged over an eight hour period.  A decade of new scientific studies have found that exposure to ozone at levels lower than the current air quality standard can still cause health effects such as decreased lung function and increased susceptibility to respiratory infection, even among otherwise healthy adults.   

In 2006, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, a group of expert scientists who advise the EPA Administrator on air pollution, reviewed 2,000 pages of science on the health effects of ozone and unanimously concluded the following:

••   There is no scientific justification for retaining the current ozone standard of 0.080 ppm;

••   The ozone standard must explicitly include the "margin of safety" required by the   Clean Air Act;

••   Therefore, the new 8-hour ozone standard should be set in the range of 0.060 to 0.070 ppm.

Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Thoracic Society, and many 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, weaker than what the agency's own scientific advisors say is necessary to protect public health.  While stronger than the current ozone standard, the proposal does not go far enough to protect all Americans from the harmful effects of ozone pollution.

Alarmingly, the new EPA proposal also leaves the door open to retaining the current inadequate ozone standard set ten years ago, which scientists and even EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson have said is not strong enough to protect public health.  Not coincidentally, in the weeks leading up to the release of EPA's proposal, representatives from industry organized high-level meetings with Bush administration officials to discuss the new ozone standard. 

Every American deserves to breathe clean air.  EPA should reject industry pressure to retain the current standard and instead adopt an ozone standard of 0.060 ppm, consistent with the recommendations of its scientific advisors.

In June, the Bush administration opened a public comment period on the ozone proposal.  Now, EPA is holding five public hearings on the proposed standards, including one in Chicago on September 5^th from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m..  The hearing will be held at 909 N. Michigan Ave at the Westin Hotel. 

Our goal is to clearly show that people care about and want to breathe clean and healthy air.  We need your help to urge the administration to finalize a strong ozone standard to protect public health, not polluters.  It could be another decade before we have this chance again.

The EPA is accepting walk-ins at the hearing in Chicago, but if you are interested in speaking at a certain time, please call or email Brian Urbaszewski, Director of Environmental Health Programs at burbaszewski@lungchicago.org  or 312-628-0245 direct.