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Activists: EPA's smog standard means fewer people will be alerted when air goes bad
By Seth Borenstein
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Eighteen months after the EPA tightened its smog standard - saying a city violates federal air regulations if smog reaches a certain level - the agency is changing the public warnings that go along with such violations.
Environmental and health activists say the change means fewer - not more - people will be alerted when the air goes bad.
"EPA has come up with this wacky scheme that doesn't even warn the public," said A. Blakemon Early, environmental consultant for the American Lung Association.
For years, most places have issued "code red" warnings when federal air quality standards are broken, usually because of smog. People are told to limit their outdoor activities and many public bus systems offer free rides to encourage drivers to leave their cars at home.
- Pollution levels threatens federal transportation funding - EPA seeks to change pollution standards for cars - Super-clean cars may be just down the road | |
For lesser pollution that has qualified for code red warnings in the past, the EPA is proposing a new orange level of warning - "unhealthy for sensitive groups."
This is a "much better method of communicating health risks to the public," said Dave Ryan, an EPA spokesman. "Our latest and best scientific evidence shows that normal people aren't affected in what we propose is code orange. Sensitive people, yes."
But who is sensitive and do they know it?
The lung association and independent environmental health professors say about one out of three people are sensitive to air pollution. This includes people who work or play outdoors for long periods of time, young children, people with chronic lung diseases, asthmatics and the elderly.
"It's a huge population," said Jayne Mardock, director of the Clean Air Network, an environmental activist group in Washington.
People have learned that when there is a code red it means "protect yourself. It's very clear," Mardock said. Now, people won't know if they are "sensitive" or not, she said.
"What kind of public health warning system is this?" John Garrison, chief executive officer of the Lung Association said. "Many people do not know they are sensitive to air pollution until it is too late."
EPA's Ryan said it's true there are many sensitive people, but "people have to decide for themselves" whether they fall in that category and should pay attention to code orange or not. People usually know if they are asthmatic, young or old, he said.
The EPA consulted focus groups and most states and they supported this new proposal, Ryan said. The EPA plans to make the rule final in May.
Mardock and Early also said the proposed warning change will give the public a false impression that overall air quality is better than it really is.
For example, the summer of 1998 was quite smoggy, Mardock said, but under the new warnings, only 7 percent of the time when federal air quality standards were violated would have been a "code red."
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