Administration Rejects Tougher Soot Standards

The pollution you see today is still considered “acceptable” according to the Trump EPA. Just this weekend they announced that they would defy all the medical research and the requests of all the medical organizations by refusing to make the national air quality standards on soot more strict. Soot is the nation’s most widespread deadly air pollutant.

It is a cynical and sinister gesture of their contempt for public health and saving lives. From the Washington Post:

“People of color and the poor — that is who gets hit the hardest by this.” The Trump administration on Monday rejected setting tougher standards on soot, the nation’s most widespread deadly air pollutant, saying the existing regulations remain sufficient even though some public health experts and environmental justice communities had pleaded for stricter limits.

The agency retained the current thresholds for fine particle pollution for another five years, despite mounting evidence linking air pollution with illness and death. In its decision, the EPA maintained that the Obama-era levels, set in 2012, are adequately protective of human health.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/07/trump-air-pollution/?fbclid=IwAR2pZuL0aUGyKEcF6gjTQnzDSNEhuhfYZs2NDMoTNmCLN_k3xjB9gkR_HjE