April 21, 2006

HEADLINE

Specialty Organizations Join ATS in Comment on EPA Rule

This week, six medical professional organizations joined the ATS in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) commenting on the proposed standards for particulate matter. In the comment letter, the ATS strongly encouraged the EPA to significantly tighten the standards for fine particulate matter and coarse particulate matter beyond what has been initially proposed by the EPA. The letter notes that the standard proposed in the EPA draft rule is less stringent than recommended by the EPA staff, the EPA Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and experts from the scientific community.

Joining the ATS in the letter to the EPA were the following organizations: the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Cardiology, American College of Chest Physicians, American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and the National Association for the Medical Direction of Respiratory Care.

In addition to the ATS letter, the American Medical Association (AMA) sent in its own comments to the EPA advocating stricter standards for particulate matter pollution. The recommendations in the AMA letter were consistent with the comments of the ATS letter.

CLEAN AIR

ATS Comments on EPA Monitoring Proposal

In a related issue, this week the ATS also sent comments to the EPA on their proposed revisions to how air pollution will be monitored in the United States.  While mostly technical in nature, the EPA proposed changes to monitoring air pollution did include a couple of significant – and inappropriate – policy changes. The EPA has proposed to exempt all emissions from agriculture and mining operations from the coarse particulate standard. Additionally, the EPA is proposing that coarse particle monitoring not be conducted in communities with a population of less than 100,000 people.

In the comment letter to EPA on the monitoring proposal, the ATS objected to the exemption of agriculture and mining emissions and recommended that small communities not be exempt from monitoring for coarse particles.

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