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EPA Soot Standards Inadequate to Protect People's Health
The EPA's standard to limit soot pollution, or particulate matter pollution, announced in September 2006 disappointed environmental, medical, and the scientific communities. In the time since the EPA last updated its standard in 1997 and when the new standard was announced, more than 2,000 scientific studies showed that exposure to even smaller amounts of soot cause serious health damage. Scientists urged the EPA to create a standard in keeping with the deluge of scientific findings detailing the damaging health impacts of soot pollution on the respiratory and circulatory systems and the increased risks for illness and death.
Unfortunately, EPA ignored the scientific advisors and carved out weak standards that give polluting industries excessive freedom at the cost of public health. EPA's own export report, released just hours after the new standards were announced, shows that as many as 30,000 deaths per year could have been avoided with a stronger standard.1 The bottom line is that these standards fail to protect people's health.
 Read Sierra Club's response to the standards.
What are the EPA's New Standards for Soot?
The EPA has a health standard for small particles of soot, known as PM2.5 because it consists of particles that are 2.5 microns or smaller. Thousands of these particles could fit into the period at the end of this sentence. There is a standard for a 24-hour period and an average standard for a year. Both standards are measured in terms of how many micrograms of PM 2.5 occur in a cubic meter of air.
In announcing the new standards, the EPA maintained the annual average standard at 15 micrograms per cubic meter and slightly revised the daily average standard to 35 micrograms per cubic meter. This is commonly expressed as the 15/35 µg/m3 annual/daily standard for PM2.5. With the revised standards the EPA also failed to set a standard for particles larger than 2.5 microns, called "coarse" particulates.
The Sierra Club's Position in a Nutshell
The Sierra Club supports soot standards which are below levels shown by the best available science to be harmful and with a margin of safety sufficient to protect sensitive and vulnerable people like infants, children, those with asthma or cardiac conditions, and the elderly. The Sierra Club does not support the EPA's new standards because they are too weak to protect all people and are not supported by the scientific evidence.
- During the latest round of revisions to the standards, the Sierra Club urged the adoption of a soot level consistent with the most recent, comprehensive, and reliable scientific evidence and that is protective of children, the elderly, and other sensitive people. Specifically, the Club supported the most protective option evaluated by EPA (the 12/25 µg/m3 annual/daily standard) for fine particulate matter. We oppose the weak standards enacted by the EPA (15/35 µg/m3 annual/daily).
- The Sierra Club also urged the adoption of a daily standard for coarse particulate matter set well below that which has been scientifically demonstrated to have been harmful to human health. We supported an annual standard comparable to California's PM10 standard of 20 µg/m3. We oppose the EPA's decision to not set a coarse particle standard.
- The Sierra Club opposed proposed loopholes which would have left rural areas at risk from soot pollution and would have exempted the mining and agriculture industry from the new standards. The EPA removed these harmful provisions in its final rule.
Find out more on soot pollution in our Frequently Asked Questions.
Check out other sources for more information.
- "Expanded Expert Judgment Assessment of the Concentration-Response Relationship Between PM2.5 Exposure and Mortality," Report for the EPA prepared by Industrial Economics, Incorporated, September 21, 2006.
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