The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday said it would tighten national air quality standards for fine particle pollution for the first time since 2012, a move that could lead to tougher limits from tailpipes to smokestacks.
Fine particulate matter, or soot, comes from sources ranging from power plants to cars and trucks and refineries. It causes lung and heart damage and has been found to disproportionately affect low-income communities, according to EPA.
The proposal would lower the allowable concentration of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns, or PM 2.5, to a range of 9 to 10 micrograms per cubic meter on average per year, from the current 12 µg/m3 in place since 2012. The EPA said it would also take public comment on revising the level to as low as 8 µg/m3, and as high as 11 µg/m3.
Most members of the EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee had recommended that the annual average start in a range as low as 8-10 µg/m3 and the primary 24-hour PM 2.5 standard be lowered to 25 µg/m3. EPA left the 24-hour standard in tact at 35 µg/m3. "The science is clear that we need standards at the most protective ends of the ranges that EPA's own scientific advisors recommended," said National Assistant Vice President at the American Lung Association Laura Kate Bender, who said dozens of groups will press EPA to adopt tighter standards during the 60-day public comment period.
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