Tell the EPA to clean up our air

The National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) program, which sets limits on six common outdoor air pollutants, is an incredibly important pillar of the Clean Air Act. Because everyone has the right to breathe clean air, all areas of the country must meet these standards.

However, the EPA recently released updated standards for particulate matter that fall well short of what’s necessary to meaningfully cut this type of pollution. It ignored the available science in order to appease polluters that would’ve had to clean up their act otherwise. Tell the EPA to course-correct and strengthen the proposed standards.

The consequences of weak standards are reflected in the Air Quality Index (AQI), which millions of people depend on to get accurate information on their local air quality. If the NAAQS aren’t based on science and set at health protective levels, people can be unknowingly exposed to dirty air that causes heart and lung damage. Every community has a right to know if their air is safe to breathe — so it’s critical that we have science-based standards that give communities accurate information and compel governments to act.

As we’re seeing right now, stronger standards are not inevitable — it takes grassroots pressure and persistent litigation to get it right. When, despite overwhelming evidence indicating the need for stronger protections, Trump’s EPA administrators corrupted the scientific review process to issue a do-nothing rule that didn’t strengthen the standard for fine particulate matter (also known as soot), Earthjustice and partners sued to ensure that the EPA didn’t squander the opportunity. Now, Biden’s EPA has proposed a small step forward, but it would still leave so much and so many behind. We’re continuing to push as hard as we can to get the EPA to finally do the right thing.

Particulate matter is a menace to our health. It consists of particles suspended in the air, with the most dangerous less than 2.5 micrometers (that’s 0.0025 centimeters, or 30 times smaller than the diameter of a single strand of hair) in diameter. These tiny particles lodge themselves deep in our lungs and can move into our bloodstream, where they can cause asthma, cancer, heart attacks, reproductive and developmental harm, and even premature death. A powerful body of science shows that the current NAAQS allow levels of particulate matter that cause these harms.

Particulate matter is a threat to everyone’s health, but lower income households and communities of color experience disproportionate exposure. Black people in particular are far more likely to suffer and die prematurely from exposure to soot pollution. This is not a coincidence, rather the result of decades of discriminatory policies at the local, state, and federal levels that have deliberately concentrated polluting facilities and highways in lower income areas and communities of color.

This administration is about to squander a real opportunity to advance environmental justice — but we can still convince the EPA to act with urgency and strengthen the NAAQS for particulate matter. The science, the moment, and our collective health demands it. Join us in calling on the agency to implement the strongest possible particulate matter standards to ensure everyone has safe, healthy air to breathe.