Contact: Sasha Tenenbaum, stenenbaum@momscleanairforce.org, (917) 887-0146
Washington, DC—This week, the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) published a June letter addressed to Brenda Mallory, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, strongly urging the Biden Administration’s EPA to strengthen the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particle pollution and ozone. Earlier this year, the EPA proposed updating the NAAQS for particle pollution. However, many environmental groups did not feel that the proposed rule—which declined to strengthen the 24-hour standard for particle pollution—were adequate to protect public health, particularly the health of environmental justice communities already overburdened by pollution. The EPA has also delayed proposing updates to the ozone NAAQS.
In support of the published letter, Almeta Cooper, Moms Clean Air Force National Manager of Health Equity, released the following statement:
“Moms Clean Air Force strongly supports the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Committee’s (WHEJAC) call for swift, bold action to strengthen the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particle pollution and ozone. Stronger particle pollution and ozone standards are a critical step in addressing the enormous inequities in how different communities are affected by these pollutants. As mothers, we believe that every child deserves to breathe clean air, no matter where they live. We also know that the burden of unhealthy air is not distributed equitably. Black, brown, and Indigenous communities bear a disproportionate share of the health harms of particle pollution and ozone, as racist practices like redlining mean they often live near pollution sources such as high-traffic roads and heavily polluting industrial facilities.
“Children are especially vulnerable to the harms of breathing unhealthy air, as their little lungs are still developing and they are more likely than adults to play outside when the air quality is poor. Among the range of alarming health impacts attributed to particle pollution and ozone, one of the most significant is asthma. For parents, there are few health conditions more frightening than watching a child struggle to breathe: nearly 5 million children under the age of 18 in the US have asthma; it is a leading chronic illness in children, and up to 50% of children with asthma have uncontrolled disease. Children of color bear a profoundly unjust burden when it comes to asthma: Black children are more than two times as likely to have asthma as their white counterparts, and nearly 8 times more likely to die from asthma. This is heartbreaking and unacceptable.
“We have the tools to alleviate the harms faced by environmental justice communities, and we must use them. Stronger standards for particle pollution and ozone would move us closer to addressing appalling inequities in air quality, and there’s no time to waste.
- For particle pollution, setting the annual standard at 8 mcg/m3 could save thousands of lives and prevent 46,000 emergency department visits for pediatric asthma each year.
- Lowering the 24-hour standard from 35 to 25 mcg/m3 could help address the daily spikes in pollution that make it unsafe for children to play outside.
- Strengthening our outdated ozone standards in line with the evidence-based recommendations from EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee would help to protect the health of millions of people around the country, quite literally making it easier for communities of color to breathe.
“Communities of color have carried an unfair share of the burden of unhealthy air for far too long. Our national air quality standards must reflect current science, and should be consistent with the White House’s stated environmental justice goals. Moms Clean Air Force strongly supports WHEJAC’s recommendations for strengthening our national air quality standards for particle and ozone pollution.”