New Air Standards Tough on Particulates

Environmental and health groups from around the country are criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency for its new air quality rules. Dustin Dwyer has more:

Transcript

Environmental and health groups from around the country are criticizing the
Environmental Protection Agency for its new air quality rules. Dustin Dwyer has more:


The new standard for short-term exposure to particulate matter, or soot, has been cut in
half. The standard on long-term exposure was left unchanged. EPA administrator
Stephen Johnson says it’s the most health-protective standard in the nation’s history:


“These are significant, significant steps to improve the quality of our air.”


Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club have criticized the new rules, and Paul
Billings of the American Lung Association also says the new soot standards do not go far
enough:


“They quite simply fail to protect public health.”


Huge areas of the country already failed to meet the previous standards on soot. Now,
another 32 counties are out of compliance. It’s up to the states to force smokestack
industries to reduce soot pollution within the next 10 years.


For the Environment Report, I’m Dustin Dwyer.

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Epa Proposes New Air Pollution Rules

Environmentalists say the Bush administration is ignoring the government’s own scientists in new proposed air pollution rules. The rules reject advice to further restrict soot and other fine particle pollution. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Environmentalists say the Bush administration is ignoring the
government’s own scientists in new proposed air pollution rules. The
rules reject advice to further restrict soot and other fine particle pollution.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


Environmental Protection Agency’s own staff scientists and the
independent Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee both found the
EPA needed to issue more restrictive rules regarding fine particulate
matter, that’s soot emitted from sources such as diesel trucks and coal-
burning power plants.


After reviewing 2000 studies linking particulate matter to asthma, heart
attacks, and early death for people with heart and lung disease, the
scientists concluded that standards set by the Clinton administration in
1997 did not go far enough to help reduce health risks. Despite that, the
Bush EPA appointees basically plan to keep restrictions where they are.


The power plant industry indicates further restrictions would be a
financial burden to it, and provide only marginal public health benefits.


Environmentalists say the Bush administration’s proposed rules ignore
mountains of medical research showing this kind of air pollution causes
serious health problems.


For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.

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Study: Air Pollution Affects Birth Weight

  • A new study found that pregnant women living in areas with high levels of fine particulate matter (p.m.) give birth to babies that weigh less on average than those born to mothers in areas with low levels of fine p.m. (Photo by Stephen Rainer)

Cars, trucks and coal-fired power plants contribute to fine particle pollution, or soot. That type of pollution can be harmful for adults with heart or lung problems, and kids with asthma. A new study suggests that the pollution can also affect developing babies. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has more:

Transcript

Cars, trucks, and coal-fired power plants contribute to fine particle pollution, or soot. That type of pollution can be harmful for adults with heart or lung problems, and kids with asthma. A new study suggests that the pollution can also affect developing babies. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has more:


This study was the first to look at fine particle pollution and developing babies in the U.S. Researchers looked at more than 18,000 babies that were carried to full term in California. They found that mothers living in areas of high exposure to fine particles had babies that weighed about an ounce less than mothers living in low exposure areas.


Tracey Woodruff is a senior scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency. She co-authored the study in the journal Pediatrics. Woodruff says an ounce is a small difference in birth weight, but it’s significant enough to merit more research on particulate matter – also known as “p.m.”


“This is one more piece of information about adverse health effects of p.m., which is feeding into the larger literature, which is leading EPA to embark on a number of different activities to try to reduce the levels.”


Woodruff says future research should look at whether fine particle pollution is related to premature births.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Soot Now Part of Epa Air Quality Alerts

The Environmental Protection Agency is expanding its air quality forecasts for more than 100 cities. That means you’ll be getting air quality alerts during the winter, too. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams reports:

Transcript

The Environmental Protection Agency is expanding its air quality forecasts for more than 100
cities. That means you’ll be getting air quality alerts during the winter, too. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams reports:


The Air Quality Index has five color codes. They range from green for days when the air is good,
to purple when the air is hazardous. In the summer, the index forecasts ozone pollution. Now,
the EPA will use the index to forecast particle pollution year-round.


Particle pollution is the soot that comes mainly from coal-burning industries and diesel engines.
Jeff Holmstead is the assistant administrator of the EPA’s Air Office.


“These tiny particles are almost microscopic, and they can actually bypass some of the body’s
normal protective functions and embed deep in the lungs and cause problems.”


Holmstead says particle pollution can be especially harmful for adults with heart or lung
problems, and kids with asthma. But he says even healthy people should take the warnings
seriously.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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GREATER MENACE FROM PCBs?

Toxic waste sites contaminated with PCBs dot industrial areas of the Midwest. Scientists have long believed that the greatest PCB risk for humans comes from eating PCB contaminated fish. A new study challenges that assumption. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports: