After hearing from the public, including 32,000 Earthjustice supporters, the EPA delivered stronger air quality protections.

Health, environmental, and community organizations, represented by Earthjustice and Clean Air Task Force, filed to intervene in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent strengthening of an air standard for fine particulate matter pollution, finalized in February. This landmark standard is designed to protect public health and would address environmental injustices but is being challenged in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by major trade associations and 25 states.

Celia, Cymone, Jonathan, and many other kids from across the United States shared with the Biden administration why they need clean air. On Feb. 7, 2024, the Biden administration answered — with new protections from the deadly air pollutant soot that will prevent nearly a million asthma episodes and save thousands of lives.

Patrice Simms, VP of Litigation for Healthy Communities: “We heard this in the ’70s, when lobbyists said that if we required catalytic converters for cars, the whole industry was going to collapse. Well, guess what? We’re fine. This is the same tired playbook of trying to undermine progress.”

La norma actualizada mejorará la salud pública y la economía

How is the air where you live?

Updated standard will improve public health and the economy

Search by county to see the level of soot pollution in the air. Soot causes death and serious health harms.

Exposure to fine particle pollution causes a range of health harms, such as increased infant mortality, cardiovascular and respiratory disease, asthma attacks, diabetes, dementia, and premature death.

Despite strong scientific consensus, EPA proposes lackluster public health protections

The Golden State claimed all five of the top slots for the highest air pollution in the American Lung Association's 2014 State of the Air Report.

Deadly fine particulate matter, also known as soot, is caused by pollution from tailpipes, smokestacks and industrial power plants. Breathing soot can cause premature death, heart disease and lung damage. It has also been linked with developmental and reproductive harms. In December 2006, Earthjustice challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s refusal to strengthen national standards for…

Today’s decision is a victory for public health that will save tens of thousands of lives and more than a billion dollars in health related costs every year.

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted protections that will slash the amount of soot allowed in our air, improving air quality for millions of Americans. This move by the EPA comes in response to legal action filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the American Lung Association and the National Parks Conservation Association asking…

“This morning’s testimony was so moving, I wish I’d had tissues with me,” said one speaker. “It never occurred to me that I would need them at an EPA public hearing.”

The historical significance of the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently proposed new limits on fine particle pollution, colloquially called soot, wasn’t lost on a number of editorial pages.