20 December 2006Planetark
Thirteen US states sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Monday for failing to set air quality standards that could save up to 24,000 lives a year.
The suit, filed in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, says the EPA ignored the advice of its own scientists. They recommended that it should lower the acceptable level for airborne soot -- known as fine particulate matter -- to 13 or 14 micrograms per cubic metre of air from the 15-microgram level that took effect on Monday.
The agency's own analysis found that lowering the level to 13 would have prevented 24,000 premature deaths per year from chronic respiratory disease and asthma attacks, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, one of the parties to the lawsuit.
"This case is just one more example of the federal government ignoring sound science in establishing environmental policy and watering down safeguards designed to protect the public," Pennsylvania DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty said in a statement.
Sources of soot include motor vehicle exhaust, emissions from factories and power plants, and wood fires.
The federal agency did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
In May 2005, about a dozen states sued the EPA over its plan to allow the trading of mercury emissions.
Plaintiffs in the current suit are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont as well as the District of Columbia and California's South Coast Air Quality Management District.
