Cross posted from A Woman's View
You could feel the excitement in the house building for days. It was like that anytime we had plans to head into the city. We were kids then, so a trip to Kennywood, the zoo or a Pirates game was always a major event. My parents planned in advance and would build it up, until the point, where the night before, we were sleepless from excitement.
The next morning, mom would be packing a picnic lunch and then we'd pile into the car, to make the 40 minute trip into the city. Imagine three little girls sitting in the backseat of the car, giggling; chattering about what they were going to ride first, what animals we wanted to see, wondering if we'd catch the ball that Roberto Clemente hit.
On these trips, I often found myself looking out the window, watching the scenary as we drove along. There was always one point where I knew we were close. It wasn't the signs, nor was it the tunnels; I knew we were close when the sky started turning brown.
I grew up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1960s and 70's. Steel was king there, and it was hard to miss the big mills as they lined up along the river, it was also hard to miss the dark plumes of smoke rising from their smokestacks, filling the air with noxious chemicals. I can still recall smelling sulphur in the air.
I grew up in an area where, to see blue skies, you had to drive to Latrobe, to the mountains. We were use to the grey skies that the haze from the glass plants in Jeannette, and the steel plants around Pittsburgh produced. There was no swimming in the rivers then, not even in the ponds near my home, because a small chemical plant there dumped it's waste there.
Today, most of the mills are closed, the effect of low price steel being imported in from Japan. Pennsylvania adopted stricter emissions standards and eventually the skies over Pittsburgh are now blue. The smog alerts from years past are still there, and they'll be issued, especially on hot, summer days, but children growing up there now, will not know the brown skies, that I had gotten used to when I was a kid.
EPA proposes tougher smog standards
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jun 23, 9:48 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Pollution standards are too weak to protect people from the air they breathe, the EPA's chief declared Thursday. He recommended tougher limits on the smog that makes children cough and asthmatics wheeze from Los Angeles to Houston to New York.
Still, under pressure from big business, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson left the door open to keeping the rules as they are.
In an administration, that had become lax on environmental controls and pro-corporate profit, it's not surprising that this is the first time since 1997 that the EPA has recommended toughening the standards for air quality. Of course this may not have come about without a lawsuit filed by the American Lung Association and other advocacy groups.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is supposed to review standards on ozone and other pollutants every five years. When that didn't happen five years ago, a lawsuit by the American Lung Association led to a settlement between EPA and advocacy groups to propose revised levels for smog. Thursday was the deadline for that proposal to be offered.
Indeed, even with the recommendation, it still seems to be status quo with the EPA and the administration.
"The science overwhelmingly supports closing the door on the current standard once and for all," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "Instead of listening to science, the administrator seems to be intent on listening to the wish lists of polluting industries."
Same arguments:
Business and industry groups including the National Association of Manufacturers have been lobbying for the smog standard to stay the same, contending that lowering it would be costly and unnecessary.
The arguments used today are the same arguments used when emission control was set into place. It would cost jobs, it would create a major financial impact on the companies. While President George W. Bush, was negotiating the import of mangoes from India, corporations were allowed to ignore the regulations set into place years earlier. Indeed, this administration and the do nothing 109th Congress, allowed corporations to ignore their responsibilities to their communities. But at what cost?
Childhood Asthma
From the Childhood Asthma Fact Sheet
Evidence indicates that ambient air pollution, such as particulate matter and ozone, precipitate asthma attacks among persons with the disease.
Automotive exhaust is a complex mixture of thousands of chemical compounds. The significant components for childhood asthma are oxides of nitrogen, ozone, sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid, fine particulates, and carbon monoxide. Also of importance are toxic organic compounds, including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and benzene. Of these materials, ozone, oxides of nitrogen, and small particulates appear to be most important.
According to the CDC, approximately 6.5 million children in the United States were reported to have asthma, as of 2005. Poor air quality has been known to trigger asthma attacks, and have forced many children to remain indoors to prevent having an attack triggered. Despite the lip service that our government and corporations give the general public, stating they care about our childrens health, their actions prove otherwise.
Increasing emission standards is a relative no brainer, not only in the argument of global warming, but in maintaining the health of it's citizens. This is something that should not be compromised or even set aside for the growth of corporations.
It remains to be seen if the EPA will follow through on it's recommendations, given the current state of affairs, I'm not particularly hopeful.