Clean Air Reports
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| 2007-03-22 | |
| Industries across the United States pump billions of pounds of toxic chemicals into our air, land, and water each year, many of which can cause cancer and other severe health effects. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program provides Americans with the best information about toxic chemicals released in their communities. | |
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| 2006-06-20 | |
| The early effects of global warming are already evident across the United States and worldwide. The year 2005 was the warmest on record. Left unchecked, temperatures will continue to rise, and the effects of global warming will become more severe. This report examines trends in U.S. global warming pollution nationally and by state and concludes that the failure to limit emissions from burning oil, coal, and natural gas has allowed global warming pollution to grow out of control. | |
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| 2006-04-05 | |
| Air pollution irreparably damages lung tissues in ways similar to second-hand tobacco smoke, leading to a wide range of health impacts. Air pollution triggers heart attacks and strokes. It causes diseases like chronic bronchitis and lung cancer. It sends people to the emergency room with respiratory problems, causes asthma attacks, and contributes to respiratory illness in otherwise healthy people. | |
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| 2005-09-08 | |
| Power plants are the largest industrial source of U.S. air emissions of mercury, a potent neurotoxin that poses serious health hazards. Mercury is particularly harmful to the developing brain; even lowlevel exposure can cause learning disabilities, developmental delays, lowered IQ, and problems with attention and memory. | |
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| 2005-06-16 | |
| Despite progress over the last 35 years, air pollution remains a major public health and environmental problem. States hold the primary responsibility for improving air quality, since the federal government establishes air quality standards and requires states to meet them. California, however, has unique authority under federal law to adopt emission standards for cars, trucks, and most other mobile sources of air pollution that are more protective than federal emission standards; subsequently, other states have the right to choose between implementing federal emission standards or the more stringent California ones. | |
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| 2005-04-06 | |
| Power plants are the largest source of U.S. emissions of mercury, a bioaccumulative neurotoxin that poses serious health hazards even in minute amounts. Mercury is particularly harmful to the developing brains of infants and young children; mercury exposure can cause vision and hearing difficulties, developmental delays, lowered IQ, problems with memory, and attention deficits. | |
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| 2005-03-01 | |
| The Bush administration has touted its so-called “Clear Skies†bill as a way to clean up power plant emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxides, soot-forming sulfur dioxide, and toxic mercury. In reality, this bill would allow power plants to pollute more and longer than under the current Clean Air Act. Moreover, a just-discovered provision in the bill weakens current law for other industries as well, including pulp and paper mills, oil refineries, and chemical plants, among others. These industrial units could “opt in†to the bill and “opt out†of existing requirements to reduce their emissions of dozens of toxic air pollutants that cause cancer, birth defects, and other serious health problems. | |
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| 2005-01-26 | |
| Power plants are the nation’s largest industrial source of air pollution, fueling global warming and causing other serious public health and environmental problems. This report examines U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data on power plant emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from 1995 to 2003 and finds that emissions are on the rise at many plants. | |
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| 2004-09-23 | |
| While air quality has improved in the last three decades, half of all Americans live in counties where air pollution exceeds national health standards.* Most of these places suffer from high levels of ozone and/or particle pollution. Ozone is the country's most pervasive air pollutant; particle pollution is the nation's deadliest air pollutant. Coal-fired power plants and motor vehicles are the largest sources of these pollutants. This report, which is based on a comprehensive survey of environmental agencies from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, examines levels of ozone and fine particle pollution in cities and towns across the country in 2003 and finds that air pollution continues to pose a grave health threat to Americans. | |
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| 2003-10-28 | |
| Since taking office in 2001, President Bush and his administration have broken two important promises to the American public concerning pollution emitted by the nation's oldest and dirtiest power plants. | |
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| 2003-09-04 | |
| The 1970 Clean Air Act, one of the nation's preeminent public health laws, has substantially improved air quality in the United States. Despite this progress, many of our cities, suburbs, and even treasured national parks are shrouded in smog for much of the summer. The major sources of this pollution include power plants, cars, trucks, and heavy equipment, such as that used in construction and farming. | |
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| 2002-10-30 | |
| Toxic chemicals in the air pose a serious threat to public health. Although levels of many air toxics have declined over the last decade, concentrations of these hazardous substances in the outdoor air remain far above health-protective guidelines established under the Clean Air Act. Congress has identified 188 of these pollutants, including substances that cause cancer, birth defects, neurological damage, and respiratory effects, but a very small number of the chemicals, most of which are emitted from cars, trucks, and non-road engines, such as diesel construction and farm equipment, appear to account for the majority of the potential cancer risk associated with the pollutants. | |
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| 2002-08-29 | |
| Ground-level ozone or smog is a dangerous respiratory irritant that affects the health of millions of Americans each year. More than half of all Americans reside in places where smog levels are high enough to cause asthma attacks, hospital visits, decreased lung function, coughing, wheezing, and eye and throat irritation. Recent studies have even linked smog with mortality from strokes and with the onset of asthma in children and adults. Despite the progress made as a result of the 1970 landmark public health law – the Clean Air Act – our cities, suburbs and even our national parks are shrouded in smog for much of the summer. | |
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