More pollution from trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles means more asthma attacks, strokes, and cancer. Children face outsized risks.
Contact: DKC News, MomsCleanAirForce@dkcnews.com
Washington, DC – Today, EPA released a proposal to weaken tailpipe pollution standards for heavy-duty vehicles, including school buses and many delivery trucks. This proposal seeks to reverse progress made in December 2022, when EPA finalized more health-protective nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles for model years 2027 and beyond. At the time, the 2022 update was the first update to heavy-duty vehicle standards in over two decades, and it was expected to dramatically reduce NOx and PM2.5 emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.
In response, Moms Clean Air Force’s Public Health Manager Elizabeth Bechard released the following statement:
“EPA’s proposal to weaken standards for heavy-duty tailpipe pollution is yet another attempt by the Trump administration to weaken protections for children’s health and call it progress. But Moms know better. After over 18 months of attacks on clean air and climate protections, safeguarding children’s health is dead last on EPA’s priority list. Pollution from heavy-duty vehicles is dangerous to breathe—and it’s particularly harmful for children’s developing lungs, brains, and immune systems.
“As EPA proposes to erode air pollution protections yet again, children and families across much of the country have been sweltering in dangerous heat. When it’s hot outside, the NOx emissions released from vehicle tailpipes react with sunlight and chemicals in the air to form ground-level ozone, also known as smog. This creates a toxic cocktail: the NOx, smog, and particle pollution emitted from tailpipes are linked with frightening pediatric asthma attacks; lung damage; increased risk of strokes, cancer, and dementia; hospital visits and early death; and harms to pregnancy and birth.
“The 2022 Clean Trucks rule will do far more to protect the health of children, families, and communities than what the Trump-Zeldin EPA is proposing. An EPA that truly cared about children’s health would be strengthening these standards.”