Yet, in their proposal for an updated standard, they went with the higher number and lower investment in human life. But the EPA’s proposal for updating the soot standards threatens to let the opportunity pass.ĮPA’s own Regulatory Impact Analysis shows that 8 ug/m3 for the annual standard would prevent 9,200 premature deaths compared to 4,200 premature deaths prevented at the proposed low end of 9 ug/m3. As a result, it has another opportunity to further its goal of using science-based federal policy to address environmental racism. ![]() ![]() The Biden administration has decided to take another look, though. As a result, the standards for particulate matter and ozone pollution have remained unchanged since the Obama administration. However, in 2020, the Trump administration’s EPA opted to ignore the science, despite new data highlighting the immediate need for more stringent protections against soot and smog, particularly in communities situated near highways, power plants, farms and factories. The Clean Air Act requires that every five years the EPA review the latest scientific data and medical studies upon which the standards are based and revise them accordingly. Since 1970, the Clean Air Act has required the EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for common air pollutants that endanger people’s health, one of which is soot and another of which is smog, or ozone, which also harms people’s respiratory tracts. Yet, for years, there has been legislation in place that, if properly implemented, could curtail the extent to which Latinos and other communities of color are disproportionately affected by this disease. ![]() This health disparity, which also affects Black and Indigenous populations in the United States, most gravely impacts the Latino community’s younger members, who are 40 percent more likely than non-Latino white children to die from asthma. It is nothing short of terrifying, and Latinos in the United States are twice as likely as non-Latino white people to visit an emergency room due to such an episode. People who suffer from asthma often describe an attack as like trying to breathe with a pillow covering their face. Because Latinos are overrepresented in occupations where people work outside such as agriculture, construction and landscaping, we are more vulnerable to outside air contamination, including unsafe levels of particulate matter pollution, or soot, which is a byproduct of fossil fuels and consists of minute particles 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
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