By: Jennifer Cantley, Nevada State Coordinator, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: February 23, 2023
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2015-0072
To: Environmental Protection Agency
Hello. My name is Jennifer Cantley, and I am the field consultant for Moms Clean Air Force in Nevada, and a mother of three boys, all of whom have asthma. As someone with asthma, which has advanced to mild COPD after contracting COVID-19 in November 2020, I am deeply committed to air quality and public health. It's crucial that the EPA establishes strong soot rules to protect our communities from harmful particle pollution, specifically PM2.5. This pollutant can cause serious health issues, especially for vulnerable populations like children, older adults, and those with respiratory and heart conditions.
It's essential that we update the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for PM2.5 to reflect the latest scientific research on air pollution's health impacts. By setting stronger standards, like an annual standard of 8 micrograms per cubic meter for the annual standard and 25 micrograms per cubic meter for the daily standard, we could prevent thousands of emergency room visits and premature deaths each year. As someone who lives and works in rural communities out in the field each year, and has witnessed an ambulance taking over an hour to arrive to help a Native American asthma patient, I can tell you that the wildfires in Nevada are making it especially hard for farming and ranching communities. Not only are the fires killing crops, from air quality and lack of sun from the smoke, but they are also making it difficult to work outside and exacerbating respiratory issues. We know that climate change is making wildfires worse, and that makes it all the more important for EPA to control the sources of particle pollution that we can control.
With over 16,000 lithium mining claims coming to rural Nevada, it's important to me, as a mother in a rural community, with lithium mining coming to my neighborhood as well, to ensure our air standards have strict rules on what is safe. More lithium mining means, among other things, more trucks coming through our communities and spewing toxic exhaust and particle pollution into our air. I don't even want to think about what our air will look or feel like in my and my children's lungs if this takes place without strict rules, especially with the almost seven-month-long fire season.
This is why the EPA must take action to prioritize public health by implementing these vital air quality standards, and moms like me are urging the EPA to strengthen the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for PM2.5 pollution to no higher than 8 micrograms per cubic meter for the annual standard and 25 micrograms per cubic meter for the daily standard because our families and communities deserve to breathe clean, healthy air.