Recognizing that even minutes of exposure to industrial exhaust can be harmful, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced a stronger standard for regulating sulfur dioxide.
The EPA estimates that the new measure will prevent between 2,300 and 5,900 premature deaths and 54,000 asthma attacks, as well as save Americans between $13 billion and $33 billion in hospital admissions, emergency room visits and lost work days due to sickness, among other benefits.
Sulfur dioxide is a major component of exhaust from power plants and a precursor to acid rain. Under the Clean Air Act, this new rule will average sulfur dioxide concentrations over one-hour periods, rather than the 24-hour period previously used.
According to the EPA, short-term exposures to sulfur dioxide (ranging from five minutes to 24 hours) can cause respiratory ailments like asthma, emphysema and bronchitis.
Frank O’Donnell of the watchdog group Clean Air Watch commended the measure.
Although the final standard is a bit less strict than we and the American Lung Association had urged, it is well within the range recommended by EPA’s independent science advisers.
Instead of 140 parts per billion over 24 hours, this new standard will require 75 parts per billion or less over a one-hour period. The EPA’s new rule is the first formal action taken by the agency since the American Lung Association successfully sued the EPA in 1996 over its refusal to set a five-minute standard.
See the New York Times story here.
