By SHILOH ROAN
Time is running out for the Environmental Protection Agency's deadline of July 19 to finalize new air quality standards.
After completing a review of air quality in the United States in November 1996 and making recommendations for new standards, the EPA opened up for a comment period whereby environmentalist and industrial groups were allowed to comment and make suggestions on the proposed standards.
'With environmental and health groups supporting the new standards and industrialist groups fighting the standards, the clean air review soon became a political battle,' said C. Arden Pope, environmental economist and a professor at BYU.
Pope said that President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore needed to support the new standards but were silent on the issue until June 26, during the United Nations Earth Summit, where Clinton pledged his support.
However, for Michael Oppenheimer, chief scientist of the Environmental Information Center in Washington D.C., talking is not enough.
'No more talk. No more promises to make promises. The president has had five years to fulfill a campaign pledge he made to the American people in 1992. He should tell the American people how he plans to live up to that commitment,' Oppenheimer said.
'With the whole world watching, the president of the world's biggest polluter needs to do more than warn of consequences of global warming. And he needs to do more than propose well-intentioned, but insufficient measures that amount to using a squirt gun to quell a raging fire,' said Adam Werback, president of the Sierra Club.
The proposed EPA standards require areas to have air particle pollution levels lower than 50 micrograms per cubic meter during any 24-hour period, and below 15 micrograms per cubic meter annually on a PM 2.5 (particulate matter) scale.
The new standards require a significant reduction in air pollution from past standards. The old standards are based on a scale of PM 10, which allowed 150 micrograms per cubic meter daily and 50 micrograms per cubic meter annually. Sixty percent of PM 10 is usually PM 2.5, Pope said; 80 percent of PM 10 is PM 2.5 during the winter months.
However, even with the new proposed standards, the European Union does not think Clinton is doing enough. They propose cutting the hazardous greenhouse gases by 15 percent. Lobbyists fear these strict standards will reduce jobs in the United States.
Although Clinton has yet to comment on the standards proposed by the EU, Kathleen McGinty, environmental aide, said the standards will be impossible for the United States to reach.
Since 1987, environmental researches have been studying the effects of particle pollution in the air and came to the conclusion that it is the small particles that do the most damage to health. In response to scientists findings, the EPA lowered the size of the particle pollution observed from 10 micrograms in diameter to 2.5 last November.
The EPA is required to revise air quality standards every five years, 'but in fact, rarely do that,' Pope said. Consequently, in 1993 the American Lung Association filed a law suit, which prompted the new standards that were drafted in November.
Although the Wasatch Front currently meets the air standards, Ursula Trueman, director of the Division of Air Quality, said, 'The new standards proposed by the EPA will be fairly tough for us to meet.'
Pope said high air pollution levels lead to decreased lung function, increased respiratory problems, increased school absences, increased hospital admissions for respiratory problems and higher cardiovascular and respiratory mortality rates.
The biggest cause of air pollution is combustion or the burning of dirty fuels that release particles into the air. Although many of the particles released are larger than PM 2.5, these particles oxidize in the air and form the smaller, more dangerous pollutants.
'This news on air pollution is often considered bad news. It's not bad news, it's good news,' Pope said. 'We know people die from cardiopulmonary disease resulting from combustion, but it is controllable. Anytime we discover a controllable cause of disease or death, it is good news.'
'Don't smoke and don't be around those who do. Burn wood, coal, diesel and gasoline in moderation,' Pope said.
Since air regulation thus far has been difficult to enforce, Pope said that a tax should be placed on things that damage the environment. The money generated from the tax will then be used to pay for problems caused by the pollution, including cleaning up the mess and paying for increased medical bills.