100M Breathing Diesel Polluted Air

08/02/2004

A preliminary analysis from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designates 243 counties in 22 states, encompassing nearly 100 million people, as failing to meet federal air standards due to high levels of soot, or particulate matter (PM), emissions. EPA identified counties that exceed required PM levels or contribute to the violation of a nearby area based on stringent soot standards introduced in 1997. The agency's aim in releasing this list early, rather than waiting until it's finalized in November, is to spur states that need to take additional pollution control measures into doing so in order to meet the standards by 2010.

EPA sources most of the soot-filled air to diesel-burning trucks and powerplants concentrated in the urban corridors of the East Coast and in California. The agency is looking to upcoming requirements for low-sulfur gasoline in 2006 and low-sulfur diesel in 2010 to help reduce PM levels, as well as requirements for cleaner commercial trucks and programs to lessen the interstate transfer of powerplant pollution.

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