In another salvo in its reckless war on clean air, EPA has released a proposal to weaken tailpipe pollution protections for new heavy-duty diesel vehicles, like school buses and many delivery trucks. This means more dangerous exhaust harming our children’s developing lungs, brains, and immune systems.
Why?! Why does this administration keep trying to weaken protections for children’s health while calling it progress? It’s an outrage, and Moms know better. Join us in telling EPA to stop this madness.
Tell EPA: Protect Children From Toxic Truck Exhaust
This new proposal seeks to undermine health-protective air pollution standards for new heavy-duty diesel trucks set in 2022. These standards, the first update to heavy-duty vehicle protections in over two decades, were expected to dramatically reduce NOx and soot emissions.
As EPA proposes to erode pollution protections yet again, children and families across much of the country have been sweltering in dangerous heat—heat that amplifies the risks of tailpipe pollution. Earlier this month, my own children were forced indoors by heat indexes near the 100s and some scary air pollution spikes.
When it’s hot outside, vehicle exhaust reacts with sunlight and chemicals in the air to form ground-level ozone, or smog. This creates a toxic cocktail 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.
After over 18 months of attacks on clean air and climate protections, it’s clear safeguarding children’s health is dead last on EPA’s priority list. Help Moms sound the alarm about this latest reckless proposal.