Biden proposes tougher limits on deadly soot pollution

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed a rule that may strengthen federal limits on industrial soot, certainly one of the country’s most threatening air pollutants that disproportionately impacts the health of low-income and minority communities. 

The proposal is the most recent motion by the Biden administration to raised address environmental justice and air pollution. Research shows that exposure to particulate matter, often called PM 2.5, results in heart attacks, asthma attacks and premature death. Studies have also linked long-term exposure to soot with higher rates of death from Covid-19.

Communities of color are systematically exposed to higher levels of soot and other air pollutants as they usually tend to be positioned near highways, oil and gas wells, and other industrial sources.

The EPA proposal seeks to limit the pollution of commercial high quality soot particles — which measure lower than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — from the present annual level of 12 micrograms per cubic meter to a level between 9 and 10 micrograms per cubic meter, which the EPA said aligns with the most recent health data and scientific evidence. Nevertheless, officials said also they are considering public comment on an annual level as little as 8 micrograms per cubic meter and as high as 11 micrograms per cubic meter.

The Trump administration had declined to tighten the prevailing Obama-era regulations that were set in 2012, despite warnings from EPA scientists that doing so could save 1000’s of lives within the U.S.

“The 2012 standards aren’t any longer sufficient,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan told reporters during a briefing Thursday. “This administration is committed to working to make sure all people have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and a possibility to live a healthy life.”

If the proposal is finalized, a strengthened annual PM 2.5 standard at a level of 9 micrograms per cubic meter — the lower end of the agency’s proposed range — would prevent as much as 4,200 annual premature deaths and end in as much as $43 billion in net health advantages in 2032, in keeping with the EPA.

Some public health advocates criticized the proposed standards as not going far enough. Paul Billings, senior vp on the American Lung Association, said the soot standards have to be lowered to an annual level as protective as 8 micrograms per cubic meter in an effort to best safeguard public health.

“Cleansing up deadly particulate matter is critical for shielding public health,” Billings said. “Failing to finalize the standards at essentially the most protective levels that health organizations are calling for would result in health harms that would have been avoided, and would miss a critical opportunity to fulfill President Biden’s environmental justice commitments.”

Air pollution takes greater than two years off the typical global life expectancy, in keeping with the Energy Policy Institute on the University of Chicago. Sixty percent of particulate matter air pollution is produced by fossil fuel combustion, while 18% comes from natural sources like dust, sea salt and wildfires, and 22% comes from other human activities.

PM 2.5 particles might be emitted directly from the source, including construction sites, unpaved roads, fields or smokestacks, or form within the atmosphere consequently of reactions of chemicals like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, that are pollutants emitted from power plants, industrial facilities and vehicles, in keeping with an EPA fact sheet.

Industries including oil and gas firms and automakers have long opposed a stricter standard on soot pollution. Throughout the Trump administration, a slew of industry groups argued against scientific findings on the general public health impact of PM 2.5 exposure and urged the federal government to keep up the prevailing standard.

The EPA is accepting public comment for 60 days after the proposal is published within the Federal Register. The agency is scheduled to release a final rule by August.