Clean Air In the News

By Brian Scheid

Three of the Delran, Burlington County, family's six children are severely asthmatic and the hottest summer days occasionally bring visits to a hospital emergency room.

“We can't plan anything in advance, especially anything outside,” McCloskey said. “Too many times we had to miss out on events because of an ozone alert.”

McCloskey joined a parade of environmentalists, scientists and doctors who testified Thursday in Philadelphia that ozone pollution (also known as smog) from factories, power plants and vehicles has created an American health crisis.

Smog is the most widespread outdoor air pollutant in this country, according to Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm. Smog forms when volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants, factories and vehicles mix with heat and sunlight.

Philadelphia is the 12th worst metropolitan area in the country for ozone pollution, according to a 2007 American Lung Association Report. Air quality in Bucks County received an “F” grade in that report.

Meanwhile, the federal government has been slow to react, long ignoring scientific evidence that ozone pollution continues to burn lungs and airways and cause a myriad of illnesses such as asthma, those officials testified.

Those claims came during hours of testimony at a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency public hearing on a plan to strengthen federal guidelines on smog pollution. The Philadelphia hearing, which took place in a small ballroom at the Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel, is one of five public hearings the agency is hosting throughout the country on their plan to reduce the federal smog standard from 80 to 84 parts per billion to 70 to 75 parts per billion, according to Alison Davis, a spokeswoman for the EPA's office of air and radiation.

However, most environmentalists and medical experts Thursday lobbied for a much stricter new standard of about 60 parts per billion.

“Every American and every Pennsylvanian deserves to breathe clean air,” said Nathan Willcox, an energy and clean air advocate with PennEnvironment, a statewide environmental group. “The current standard is not good enough.”

The difference has been compared to a couple of grains of sand in an Olympic-sized swimming pool but sparked a number of disparate claims during the public hearing.

Jeff Holmstead, a former top official at the EPA who represents many of the industries that would be affected by the new smog standard, testified that the new standard would be costly, nearly impossible to enforce and have “no impact whatsoever.”

“It's not magical that you set a new standard and all of the sudden air quality improves,” Holmstead said.

Bryan Brendle, a spokesman for the National Association of Manufacturers, said the stricter standard “will provide uncertain benefits while burdening the nation's economy.”

Lorraine Krupa-Gershman, a spokeswoman for the American Chemistry Council, testified that the evidence environmental advocates cited was flawed and inconsistent.

“This is not sound science,” she said.

Dennis Winters, a conservation chairman for the Sierra Club's Southeastern Pennsylvania group, said he was tired of EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson disregarding scientific evidence and listening to “industry lobbyists rather than the scientific community.”

“The science is clear: Ozone is harmful to the lungs and causes illness,” said Dr. Kevin Osterhoudt, a pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Kevin Stewart with the American Lung Association said high levels of smog can scar the lungs and lead to asthma attacks and premature death.

“Follow the science, follow the law,” Stewart said in his testimony. “Issue standards that actually protect public health, that provide a real margin of safety and that don't lie to the public about the quality of the air they breathe.”