Utah loses an opportunity to limit pollution by blaming bad air on out of state actors
A recent Salt Lake Tribune article outlines the EPA’s intent to reclassify northern Utah’s summertime ozone pollution. Dr. Brian Moench, president and cofounder of UPHE told the Tribune, “In other words, this EPA considers life-saving, health protecting cleaner air a ‘punishment’ and a ‘burden,’ and that the Wasatch Front will benefit from dirtier air.”
Phoenix is also being stripped of the pollution protections that come with non-attainment of federal pollution limits. Although their pollution levels are high enough (like ours), the EPA is exempting these cities from limits meant to clean our air.
“The stakes were high for health too, said Dr. Brian Moench, president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, a nonprofit organization.
“Ozone can harm the lungs, especially in children and older people, and can trigger a host of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. “Ozone is so potent, it doesn’t take much at all to have a profound impact on people’s health,” Dr. Moench said.
“He pointed to a large study that found that being exposed to an increase of just 3 parts per billion of ozone for a duration of 10 years caused a loss of lung function and lung tissue equivalent to what would typically occur from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for 29 years.It doesn’t matter if the ozone came from China,” Dr. Moench told the New York Times. “If you’re breathing it, it’s doing the same harm as if it came from Salt Lake City.”
