The Smog Blog: Senate Hearings Shine Light on Smog Standards

Last week I attended a Senate oversight hearing on the undermining of science at the Environmental Protection Agency. A subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was investigating the Agency’s failure to follow the recommendations of its own Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee when revising the air quality standards for soot and smog.

Chair of the Committee Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) stated:

"After 30 years of closely working with its independent clean air scientific advisors, in the last few years EPA has repeatedly ignored its Clean Air Science Advisory Committee, or CASAC.

For example, over 80 million people live in areas with unhealthy levels of toxic soot pollution, which can damage the heart and lungs and cause premature death. In 2006, CASAC urged EPA to strengthen the annual standard for toxic fine soot. Instead, the EPA Administrator ignored the scientific recommendations and left that standard unchanged. The scientific advisors found that “there is clear and convincing evidence that significant adverse human-health effects occur” under the standard.

EPA’s recent action on ozone or smog was similar. Over 90 million people live in areas with unhealthy levels of smog pollution -- which damages the lungs and can lead to premature death. Again, EPA ignored its scientific advisors’ unanimous recommendation to set the level as low as 60 but no higher than 70 parts per billion of ozone. EPA set the standard at 75 parts per billion, ignoring the scientists."

Dr. George Thurston, Professor of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine

Dr. George Thurston, Professor of Environmental Medicine New York University School of Medicine, testified on behalf of the American Lung Association. Click here to read his testimony or to view a webcast of the hearing.

You can read a humorous account (The Conservative’s Dictionary of Scientific Language) of EPA Assistant Administrator George Gray’s testimony in the Wonk Room.

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