April 15, 2004
CONTACT: Michael Fiorentino
215-567-4004, x238

8.5 MILLION PENNSYLVANIANS
LIVING WITH DIRTY AIR
BUT BUSH PLAN KEEPS SUMMERS SMOGGY

PHILADELPHIA - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acknowledged the full extent of the smog problem by identifying the counties in the U.S. that are violating a new national health standard. At the same time, the agency announced a plan for putting the standard into effect that actually relaxes required pollution controls and delays deadlines for polluters to clean up. Pennsylvania clean air and public health advocates today called it a mixed bag.

EPA found that residents of 37 counties in Pennsylvania are exposed to air pollution that threatens public health. According to EPA's own air pollution consultants, if all the counties in Pennsylvania had cleaner air and met the public health standard, that would mean over 34,000 fewer asthma attacks and 447 fewer hospital admissions every year. Unfortunately, under the Bush administration plan, many areas will stay dirty.

"Today we learned just how many Pennsylvania residents are breathing unhealthy air," said Joseph Minott, Esq., Executive Director of Clean Air Council. "And still the ozone health standard established in 1997 is years from taking a real bite out of air pollution."

On hot summer days, nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds from power plants and other sources are baked into ozone smog, resulting in "code red" air quality. Smog poses a serious threat to children and seniors, triggering asthma attacks and even causing permanent lung damage. Six million asthma attacks each year in the eastern United States can be attributed to smog pollution.
Recent studies suggest something even more ominous.

"Studies have shown that previously-healthy kids who play outside in high-smog areas are more likely to develop asthma, an often life-long and incurable affliction," Minott said.

"Unfortunately, when it comes to clean air, the Bush administration giveth, and the Bush administration taketh away," said Angela Ledford, Director of Clear the Air. "Naming the counties violating clean air standards provides a historic opportunity, but the Bush administration found a way to let polluters off the hook."

The Bush administration has claimed that a separate rule it proposed in January, intended to deal with air pollution that crosses state lines, will deal with ozone smog in many of the areas found to violate the new smog standard. However, even after the Interstate Transport Rule goes into effect, EPA's own modeling shows that over 26 million Americans will still be breathing unhealthy air. In addition, the transport rule does not take full effect until 2015, far later than the intended smog rule deadlines.

See the attached factsheet for more about the problems with the Bush plan for implementing the smog rule.

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