Brief Summary
The two most pervasive and
harmful air contaminants are fine-particles, known as “soot” and
ozone gas known as “smog.” Both are damaging to our respiratory
systems, causing asthma attacks and loss of lung function, and both
are byproducts of burning fossil fuels in primarily in power plants
or in automobiles.
Ozone reduces lung function
for anyone chronically exposed, including healthy adults who exercise
outdoors in the summertime. For vulnerable populations, including
children, the elderly, and people with asthma or other respiratory disease,
high smog days often means staying indoors, missing work, or missing
school, and in the worst cases, hospitalization. Smog triggers
an estimated 6 million asthma attacks per year and sends 150,000 Americans
to hospital emergency rooms just in the Eastern half of the nation.
Soot is also associated with
serious heart damage and has been linked to heart attacks and premature
death.
• One study found that babies
in cities with high levels of particulate pollution had a 26 percent
increased risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
• Particles can trigger heart
attacks in people with heart disease by causing changes in heart rhythms.
• Studies by the Harvard School
of Public Health, the Health Effects Institute and others have confirmed
that tens of thousands of people each year die prematurely due to fine
particle pollution.
It is U.S. EPA’s job to set
air quality standards, based on health data provided by scientists,
to ensure that every American has safe, clean air to breathe.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration’s EPA has proposed a new soot
standard that is not protective of public health. Rather than
listening to the scientists, the administration listened to the lobbyists
for the coal, oil and chemical industries.
In March, they held a hearing
in Chicago, at which more than 60 doctors, scientists, citizens expressed
opposition to the EPA’s new soot standard. Below you can link
to the testimony of Environment Illinois Director Rebecca Stanfield,
and our press release.
