Local groups and citizens offered moving testimony and countless public comments, urging the EPA to adopt the strongest possible smog pollution standard
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Witnesses from all walks of life across the D.C. metro region, and throughout Virginia and Maryland – including health experts, concerned parents, local leaders and environmental advocates – testified today at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Washington, D.C. regional hearing calling for the agency to strengthen the smog pollution standard and protect American communities from dirty air. Two other hearings on the standard will also take place in Arlington, Texas (today) and Sacramento, California (February 2).
The smog standard was last updated in 2008 when the Bush administration rejected the recommendations of expert scientists and medical health professionals, who warned that the now current 75 parts per billion was insufficient to protect public health. Over the past six years, scientists, medical experts, and public health advocates have consistently highlighted the need for a stronger standard and have pointed to an ever-growing body of scientific literature that demonstrates significant harm to public health, particularly in vulnerable populations like children, the elderly, and those with breathing ailments like asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
The following statement was released by Dr. Gwen Dubois, an Internist at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, released the following statement:
“Today is our chance to talk face-to-face with the people who can do something about the coughing, wheezing and frantic hospital trips that permeate the lives of asthmatics and those suffering from other respiratory diseases. These hearings put faces to the troubling statistics and show the EPA that the millions currently exposed to dirty air have names, stories and real world struggles with smog (ozone) pollution.
I’m travelling to Washington today to support the strongest standard possible, the 60ppb limit advocated for by medical associations and public health organizations like the American Lung Association.
As a doctor, I am all too familiar with the havoc that asthma can mean for those who are affected by it. It’s an especially bad problem in Maryland, where even today large numbers of residents live in areas where the air is at times unsafe to breathe.
In addition to its health benefits, a 60 ppb standard would provide the public with the most accurate measurement of air safety that medical science has to offer. Many air alert systems across the country are based off the EPA’s smog pollution standard and setting it higher than what health experts and scientific studies recommend will unnecessarily put lives at risk.”