Naked City

Dec. 17 saw the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's initial release of fine particle pollution air quality standards, with Texas getting a clean bill of health. Claiming that FPP levels are the lowest since nationwide monitoring began in 1999, the report says Texas skies are in attainment – but are the results a bunch of hot air?

The EPA's "Particle Pollution Report: Current Understanding of Air Quality and Emissions Through 2003," says Texas is one of 30 states to make the cut under the agency's "PM(2.5)" standard. "I am especially pleased Texas joins the elite group of 30 states whose early action has been effective in bringing clean air to all of its communities," said EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene in a glowing press release felicitating Texas' infallible air.

First instituted in 1997, yet held up in court for years by lawsuits from polluters, the recently implemented PM(2.5) rules regulate the microscopic "particulate matter" produced in soot from coal-burning power plants and combustion engines. Smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (hence the name), PM(2.5) particles stay airborne, where they can lodge in lungs, leading to heart attacks, decreased life expectancy, and death. Information from the advocacy coalition Clear the Air suggests fine-particle pollution may cause more than 1,100 preventable deaths in Texas annually.

Clear the Air's Frank O'Donnell fails to share the EPA's enthusiasm. The agency's conclusion "is accurate, based on the current monitoring info," O'Donnell says, but "that doesn't necessarily mean the air is safe to breathe." He points to, among other things, the delayed implementation of the EPA's own standards. "They've only now gone into effect," he said, yet "what's happened since [1997] are further scientific developments." Back then, FPP was thought simply to affect breathing, but since the threat of cardiac arrest and early death has been better documented. Public health groups like the American Heart Association and American Lung Association are "reviewing the science right now," and "are going to be arguing that the standards need to be even tighter" according to O'Donnell. "If emissions have dropped, they're still far too high."

Additionally, in his estimation, 30 or more power plants "get a break" by being in compliance with the designations. Yet due to their location on the fringes of metropolitan areas, such plants still contribute to the pollution in bigger cities like Houston. "Even though Texas is in compliance, it doesn't mean the air is safe to breathe."