When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new clean air protection earlier this month, the Sierra Club and our public health and environmental partners were disappointed. After medical associations, 70 mayors, and a half-million Americans had weighed in calling for strong protections, EPA set an inadequate standard that will leave millions of Americans breathing dangerous, potentially deadly levels of air pollution. But while we're disappointed, the decision has only strengthened our resolve to hold polluters accountable for the health hazards they impose on our communities and build on the already massive public support we’ve garnered for strong, science based protections.
This post recaps some of the highlights of our advocacy for stronger smog protections, and the many local leaders and volunteers who led the fight, and who will keep fighting for clean air. We won’t stop until every resident of every community can enjoy the outdoors all year round without fear of wheezing or being rushed off to the hospital.
Smog isn’t some relic from the hazy days of 1970s Los Angeles; it is a very real and very deadly adversary that communities across the country must contend with every day. Inhaling it is like getting a sunburn on your lungs and often results in immediate trouble breathing. Long term exposure to smog is linked to chronic respiratory diseases like asthma, reproductive and developmental harm, and even premature death.
What's most troubling about these health impacts is that children, seniors, and people with respiratory illnesses are especially vulnerable to them, and that they are disproportionately distributed among low-income communities and communities of color. Analyses from the Department of Health and Human Services and NAACP have found that these communities are more likely to live close to sources of pollution, have lower access to medical information and health insurance, and die from asthma related complications.
This is why Sierra Club has been adamant at every turn that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Obama Administration strengthen the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ground level ozone (the scientific name for smog) as much as possible.
The current George W. Bush-era protections have been widely acknowledged by the medical community as inadequate to protect public health and that is why many of America’s most esteemed medical organizations - like the American Lung Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics - have been pushing for years it strengthen to what is medically safe.
What is medically safe? Based on an overwhelming body of peer-reviewed studies, doctors and scientists have determined that NAAQS should be set no higher than 60 parts per billion (ppb), which is what they found to be most protective, particularly for vulnerable and sensitive populations. To put that figure into further context, on October 1 the president lowered NAAQS from 75 ppb (the Bush era standard) to 70 ppb, a move that was a step in the right direction, but a step far too small, and was immediately labeled as too weak by medical organizations, public health advocates, and environmental justice groups.
Had the president sided with public health and set NAAQS at 60 ppb, the benefits would have been massive. Analyses showed that 60 ppb would have saved taxpayers as much as $75 billion annually through lower health care costs. Each year, this would translate into as many as 7,900 lives saved, 1.8 million fewer juvenile asthma attacks, and 1.9 million missed school days avoided.
Over the past year, the imperative of making these benefits a reality for our communities is what has kept our members, supporters, and volunteers showing up to rallies, submitting opinion pieces and public comments, and testifying before the EPA. Their drive, passion, and motivation were a sight to behold, even after they received the disappointing news that the standard would be set at 70 ppb.
The Clean Air Act requires EPA to update the smog standard every five years, and so we will be back for another round in this fight before we know it. And if what our public health allies, community leaders, and volunteers helped us accomplish in 2015 is any indication of their effort in the future, I think we can win the fight for real, science based clean air protections the next time NAAQS is updated.
In Washington, D.C., for example...
...we organized more than 140 clean air activists with our coalition partners -- everyone from parents to health experts to environmental advocates to local leaders from D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and beyond - to speak at the EPA hearing in Washington, D.C. on the need to strengthen NAAQS from the then current 75 ppb. Despite the differences in location, profession, and even age, all these witnesses had one thing in common: the desire to protect the health and wellness of all Americans through strong smog pollution standards.
With more than two-thirds of the testimonials coming from Sierra Club voices -- including the Sierra Student Coalition and Beyond Coal Campaign Director Mary Anne Hitt -- it was more than clear that it's time for stronger ground level ozone standards from the EPA. As Hitt testified, "The American people shouldn't have to wait any longer for action on cleaning up the smog."
Of the 175 people who came out to show their support for the EPA's proposed new smog standards, 141 testified in favor of the new, tougher standards, while 33 testified against.
In addition to turning people out to this important hearing, we also launched three ad campaigns in the interim period between then and the October 1 announcement which focused on children’s health and environmental justice. In February, a five-figure ad campaign urged parents to send comments to the EPA to set the strongest possible protections against smog pollution, which was followed by another “take your child to work day” ad campaign centered on the struggles of working parents with asthmatic children in April.
The Sierra Club was also joined by NAACP, Earthjustice, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Moms Clean Air Force to run ads in prominent African American newspapers in Washington, D.C. and across the country, which were supplemented by digital ads targeted toward key decision makers on Capitol Hill. As a whole, these ads highlighted how low-income communities and communities of color disproportionately suffer the brunt of America’s smog pollution and urged the president to set the strongest possible standard to protect them.
In addition to advertisements, we also joined with our allies to organize half a million people to submit comments to the EPA calling for the strongest possible NAAQS standard, citing the massive health benefits of clean air for our communities. This, coupled with placing opinion pieces in The Hill, a popular beltway newsletter, relaunching our mobile air alert system to warn parents of local air pollution, and hosting three pediatricians on Sierra Club radio to discuss the need for stronger protections.
In Texas, ...
...similar to the EPA hearings in Washington, DC (mentioned above), Sierra Club helped turn out 200 residents - including children, parents and doctors from across the state to push for strongest protections against smog pollution. Concerned citizens from neighboring Louisiana and Oklahoma came to testify at the hearing as well.
As in Washington, supporters of clean air far outnumbered those giving testimony opposing the tougher smog standards, with 102 clean air supporters testifying in favor of the new standards and just 13 people opposing. Meanwhile, 130 people showed their support for the EPA's tougher standards at a rally outside Arlington City Hall.
At the rally, Addie Geheb (above) the granddaughter Dr. John Kissel, a retired primary care physician who flew in from St. Louis for the event, stood out in her long-sleeved shirt reading a sparkly “60 ppb,” signifying the ask for a stronger limit to the amount of smog pollution in our atmosphere.
She wasn’t alone in showing support for a strong smog standard that would protect health.
Dr. Neil Carman, Clean Air Program Director with the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, testified before the EPA and also told NewsFix, the local CW affiliate that, “The Dallas-Fort Worth area has the highest rate of pediatric asthma in the State of Texas.”
Medical professionals, parents of asthmatics, and others testifying before the EPA made it clear to the agency that Texans want clean air for the good of their health. That’s Lone Star Chapter director Reggie James, below, testifying at the hearing.
The hearing in Arlington lasted nearly all day, and the news quickly spread across the state. An Associated Press story made its rounds on local news sites pointing to a key reason to strengthen the standard in the region: The EPA’s air quality index shows the Dallas-Fort Worth area had the most days with unhealthy levels of ozone in 2014 in Texas. The Dallas Morning News also featured the testimonies of medical professionals and clean air advocates in the region’s largest daily newspaper.
In California,
...we helped organized more than 400 citizens to show up for the final hearing on strengthening their protections against smog pollution, with nearly half of them testifying. Among those who made the trip to Sacramento were 107 students from Desert Mirage High School in Thermal, California, who boarded a bus at 1:00 a.m. to make the 500-mile trip to the state capital.
"It's hard to describe how powerful their testimony was, and the courage it took for them to share their stories," says Evan Gillespie, a Southern California-based organizer with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. "Student after student came up and shared their personal story, many of them noting that they made the trip to speak for their parents, siblings, or friends who suffer from asthma or other smog-related ailments. The stories were deeply moving and left audience members and EPA staff alike visibly shaken, choked-up, and teary-eyed. (Read this newspaper story about the students' trip to Sacramento.)
Another bus left Los Angeles at 5:00 a.m. to make it to the capital in time for the pre-hearing rally in Cesar Chavez Plaza Park, below, near the state capitol, and a contingent of 80+ people made the trek from the San Francisco Bay Area. During the hearing, one of the three EPA administrators said, "This is really impressive; thank you for coming all this way. In my 38 years with the EPA I have never seen anything like this before."
By the end of the day, some 186 students, moms, dads, teachers, doctors, nurses, faith leaders, and others came out to urge the EPA to strengthen ozone standards; a total of 12 people spoke out against the agency's new, tougher standards.
In Indiana…
...we didn’t let the lack of an EPA hearing on the clean air protections stop us. Our local staff planned and placed an Indianapolis Star feature piece on Amber Sparks and her family on enduring life among what residents of Near-Southside Indianapolis call, “the Southside Stench.” It was published on the same weekend that she gathered with other Hoosier moms, along with doctors and health experts, to urge Senator Joe Donnelly to support smog reductions in his state.
Pressuring lawmakers on stronger protections against smog pollution just didn’t stop with the Hoosier state,
...a month after the EPA hearings, dozens of community leaders from at least 16 states - including Michigan, Tennessee and Wisconsin - rushed the halls of Capitol Hill to press lawmakers to support stronger clean air protections against smog pollution, along with better safeguards against dangerous coal ash and reductions in carbon pollution.
The people that came out were an eclectic mix of residents that ranged from Missourian retirees to Illinois community activists and veterans, college students, and even school administrators. Speaking out against Congressional attacks against the EPA on clean air and water protections, Jessica Ulery, a former youth pastor and current early childhood educator, said during the “Lobby Day” that, ...
"We are here to speak up because everyone's health is dependent on the quality of our air and water. We came here to let our representatives know that an attack on the EPA is an attack on their constituents' health and peace of mind. Their job is first and foremost to protect us from harm, and pollution is the number-one danger in my book.”
With the help of people like this, we know that October 1’s disappointment will not be the final say in our efforts to reduce smog pollution.
We’ve built a strong network of passionate, motivated people dedicated to cleaning up our air and they will not stop pushing for 60 ppb. Nothing will stop us from standing with them and we welcome the challenges ahead. We will regroup, retool, and replan for 60 ppb, and will not stop until we get there.