Clean Air Advocates Call on Greater Cleveland Congressional Delegation to Oppose Efforts to Weaken Clean Air Protections
Cleveland, Ohio
July 31, 2003

Bush Administration Air Pollution Plan Would Increase Smog, Soot, Mercury Pollution
Brandishing an oversized asthma inhaler labeled “Bush Dirty Air Plan Antidote” and standing beside a giant inflated model of a power plant in downtown Cleveland today, advocates for clean air called on greater Cleveland’s congressional delegation to oppose the Bush administration’s efforts to weaken clean air protections and pledge, instead, to vote against the president’s so-called “Clear Skies Initiative.” The Bush proposal would roll back existing protections under the Clean Air Act. It also would delay the clean up of power plant emissions for several years past a 2010 federal deadline by which Ohio must meet more protective air quality standards. The advocates called on Congress to support comprehensive legislation to strengthen federal clean air laws, bringing cleaner air to Ohio sooner.

The advocates also called on Senators Mike DeWine and George Voinovich to support Senator John Edwards’ Clean Air Amendment, a measure that will block the Bush administration’s rollback of a key provision of the Clean Air Act. The amendment, which is expected to be debated in the Senate today, will give states the option to reject a rollback to a key Clean Air Act program called New Source Review. Last year, the Bush administration weakened this program and allowed 17,000 facilities to increase air pollution. The Edwards’s Clean Air Amendment will allow states to opt out of this rollback, and prevent their air quality from becoming worse.

“Ohioans won’t be breathing easy until the Bush administration’s efforts to weaken the Clean Air Act are defeated and strong new protections passed,” said Jack Shaner, Public Affairs Coordinator for the Ohio Environmental Council. “The President’s plan does too little, too late. We need greater Cleveland’s congressional delegation to support a real clean air plan, and we need our senators to hold the line today against any further weakening of the law.”

The USEPA is expected next year to declare Cleveland and Ohio’s other major cities out of compliance with new federal clean air standards for ozone and fine particulate matter, or soot. By 2010, Ohio must clean its air to comply with the new standards or face federal sanctions on siting new factories and highways. According to U.S. EPA monitoring data, pollution from power plants accounts for up to half of the ozone and soot in Ohio’s cities.

“As a physician specializing in environmental and occupational health, I am appalled at the Bush administration’s blatant disregard for the health of the American people,” said Dr. Kathleen Fagan, president of Environmental Health Watch in Cleveland. “If the Bush administration cared about the health and lives of the American people, they would be looking for ways to speed up the EPA clean air programs, rather than trying to slow down or stop them.”

According to an internal USEPA analysis made public last year, the Bush administration’s air pollution plan would have weaker limits, over a longer timeframe, than if the EPA faithfully enforced the Clean Air Act. These differences include:

• The Bush air pollution plan will allow a 300% increase in mercury pollution, a neurotoxin that can cause brain damage and birth defects and for which the Ohio Department of Health has issued a statewide fish consumption advisory warning people to limit their consumption of fish caught in Ohio lakes and rivers.
• The Bush air pollution plan allows for a 68% increase in the ozone-forming pollution that triggers asthma attacks and sends more than a thousand Ohioans to the hospital every year.
• The Bush air pollution plan allows a 200% increase in the soot-forming pollution that can cause premature death. An estimated 1,920 people – 2nd most in the nation – die prematurely each year in Ohio from power plant emissions of soot, tiny particles that penetrate deeply into the lung.
• Even though power plants are the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 40 percent of the nation’s (and 50 percent of the Ohio’s) emissions of carbon dioxide, the Bush air pollution plan places no limits on this pollutant.

According to a study by EPA’s own consultants, Abt Associates, power plant pollution shortens the lives of an estimated 1,920 Ohioans each year and causes an estimated 442 emergency room visits, 313,000 lost work days, and 1.6 million restricted activity days each year in Ohio.

The groups called on U.S. Representatives Sherrod Brown (D-Lorain), Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (DCleveland), and Steven LaTourette (R-Painesville) to join Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland) in publicly rejecting the Bush proposal and pledging instead to support congressional action that will:

• Guarantee reductions in power plant emissions
• Provide the greatest benefits possible to human health and the environment
• Protect the integrity of the Clean Air Act
• Reduce emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide

“Ohioans can ill afford to wait another day for clean air. Each year, Ohio is among the top five states in the nation for asthma attacks, hospitalizations, and lost work days caused by from power plant pollution. Now is no time to allow even more smog and soot to dirty our skies. We need our congressional leaders to speak out for strengthening the Clean Air Act, and to oppose any effort to weaken clean air standards or delay further the health benefits which we so desperately await here in Ohio,” said Chris Trepal, Executive Director of the Earth Day Coalition.

Statement of Kathleen Fagan, MD MPH
Environmental Health Watch
As a physician specializing in environmental and occupational health, I am appalled at the Bush administration’s blatant disregard for the health of the American people. The Bush administration is proposing to block and delay many, if not most, of the Federal Clean Air Act programs to decrease toxins in our air. These programs are based on thousands of scientific studies showing the adverse health effects created by these toxins. If the Bush administration cared about the health and lives of the American people, they would be looking for ways to speed up the EPA Clean Air programs, rather than trying to slow down or stop them.

Take, for example, sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide is a toxic, irritant gas created by burning oil, coal and metals. Power plants are a major source of sulfur dioxide pollution. We know that sulfur dioxide damages lung tissue and causes the bronchial tubes to constrict, resulting in wheezing and cough. Many studies show an increase in hospital admissions and emergency department visits for asthma and respiratory illness with increasing sulfur dioxide air levels. Delaying the reduction of sulfur dioxide in the air will cause many more people to become sick than if these levels are reduced. Even more concerning is the fact that sulfur dioxide levels in combination with high particulate pollution has been clearly linked to increased death rates from heart and lung diseases. More people will die because the Bush administration wants to impede these EPA programs.

It is no surprise that people with lung diseases, such as asthma, are particularly vulnerable to high air pollution levels. In the U.S. we are experiencing an epidemic of asthma. The American Lung Association states that the prevalence of asthma has increased a whopping 25% between 1999 and 2001, and children between the ages of 5 and 17 are the hardest hit, particularly African-american and Hispanic children. Over 20 million people have asthma. In 2000, there were over 10 million doctor visits, 1.8 million emergency visits and 465,000 hospital admissions for asthma. The American Lung Association estimates that our epidemic of asthma costs $14 billion per year. There is no question that outdoor air pollution plays a major role in asthma attacks, worsening asthma symptoms, leading to more medication, more doctors visits, more hospitals admissions and, in some cases, death from severe asthma attacks. The Bush administration clearly does not care about these facts or they would do everything in their power to strengthen the Clean Air Act instead of putting up roadblocks to its programs.

The administration wishes to delay decreases in Nitrogen Oxides for up to 8 years. Nitrogen oxides, created by fuel combustion from cars and power plants, are key chemicals in the creation of smog and ozone. If you decrease nitrogen oxides, you decrease ozone and smog. And there are thousands of studies that show how ozone and smog damage the lungs and cause worsening health in people with asthma, emphysema, COPD, and heart disease. I do not understand why the Bush administration wants to delay these reductions since reducing nitrogen oxides will improve the health of many people.

I guess it is not as hard to see why Bush does not care about reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. Increasing carbon dioxide levels result in global warming, and we know that, despite scientific consensus to the contrary, Bush does not believe in global warming. Unfortunately, we are already seeing an affect of global warming every summer for the last few years- and that is West Nile Virus. West Nile Virus, a mosquito-borne disease, is on the rise because global warming has caused improved conditions for mosquito breeding in latitudes farther north than ever before. Scientists predict that continued global warming will result in even more mosquito-borne diseases in the future, including malaria. It seems that the public health impact of Bush’s Clean Air policies are both myriad and deadly!

The most recent research on outdoor air pollution indicates that there are likely no clear thresholds below which no health effects are detectable. Thus, our goals should be to reduce air pollutants to the lowest levels possible. Everyone knows that “yo-yo” dieting doesn’t work. As soon as you stop your diet and start eating lots of calories, your weight goes back up, sometimes higher than when you started! Well, “yo-yo” environmental regulations don’t work either. Bush’s plans to block Clean Air regulations will stall needed programs and may even increase outdoor air pollution- and this is clearly bad for the health of many people, particularly children, elderly and those with chronic diseases. We must not let this happen!

Information about event sponsors:
Ohio Environmental Council <www.theoec.org> is a nonprofit network of more than 100 state and local groups that advocates for clean air, land, and water. The OEC is dedicated to Keep Watch, Take Action, and Make Change. Environmental Health Watch <www.ehw.org> is a not-for-profit public interest organization in Cleveland. EHW provides information, assistance and advocacy to protect and sustain human health and the health of the environment. Earth Day Coalition <www.earthdaycoalition.org> is a nonprofit environmental education and advocacy organization serving Ohio. EDC was established in 1990 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Earth Day in Ohio.

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