Cleaning the Air and Protecting Public Health with EPA’s New Ozone Standard
(Washington, DC) – A compilation of public comments on the EPA's new ozone rule, assembled by Democratic staff, shows near universal support by the public health and medical community for the EPA's efforts to lower the levels of ozone pollution.
"Cleaning the Air: A Selection of Public Comments on the EPA’s New Ozone Rule,” provides a snapshot of the public’s wide-ranging support for the new EPA rule released on October 1, 2015. Major national medical organizations, including the American Lung Association, American Thoracic Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all supported EPA’s efforts to lower the ozone standard. This report is being released in advance of the Committee’s hearing tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m., titled: “EPA’s 2015 Ozone Standard: Concerns Over Science and Implementation.”
Ozone is a key component in smog and is known to exacerbate respiratory illnesses, such as asthma. An estimated 10 percent of all children and nearly 26 million Americans suffer from asthma and are put at risk from high levels of ozone exposure. In the U.S. alone, asthma accounts for almost 2 million emergency room visits, 439,000 hospitalizations, more than 14 million doctor visits, 14 million lost work days, more than 10.5 million lost school days and 3,600 deaths each year. Implementing the new standard will help reduce those numbers. The new rule lowers the ozone standard from 75 parts per billion (ppb) to 70 ppb.
In her prepared statement for tomorrow’s hearing, Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson likens the tactics used by the industries opposed to this new health-based standard to those used by the tobacco industry to raise doubts about the scientific and medical evidence that identified cigarette smoking as hazardous to human health. Majority witnesses at tomorrow's hearing are likely to suggest that the scientific evidence upon which the new ozone rule is based is not definitive or strong in an attempt to raise doubts about the EPA's actions. They likely will also exaggerate the economic costs of reducing ozone pollution.
In her statement, Congresswoman Johnson says: "This strategy served the tobacco industry well, postponing effective action for years. The profits enabled by these public relations-based attacks on science went to the companies, but the American public paid the price in a lower quality of life, increased medical costs, lost earnings, and shortened lives. This same strategy has been mimicked by the oil and gas industry in its attempt to question the scientific evidence pointing to climate change. Unfortunately, this Committee has become a favorite forum for rolling out these tactics during consideration of federal regulation of harmful chemicals that harm the environment and endanger the public’s health."
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