The American Lung Association and the federal government disagree over how much pollution is safe to breathe.  Even if your county got a “Pass” grade for year-round particle pollution this year, your county may not have air that really is safe to breathe. Here’s how to tell.

Go to PARTICLE POLLUTION-Annual on your county’s report card.  Look at the Design Value.  If it is 15.0 or lower, your county officially got a “Pass” grade, meaning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said you had particle pollution that was safe to breathe. However the Lung Association and many other health groups agree that EPA should have drawn the line at 12.0. This means that if your county’s Design Value falls between 12.0 and 15.0, you have too much particle pollution year-round in your county, but the law won’t require it be cleaned up.  [We report EPA’s scoring only for Annual Particle Pollution, but we don’t agree with the grades. To help determine the other grades, we use their data and scales, but somewhat different methods.]

Every 5 years, the EPA must set official limits, called national air quality standards, on how much air pollution can be in the air. The federal government, states and counties have to clean up pollution so that they meet those standards.  The Clean Air Act requires that EPA set these standards at levels that protect public health from the harm air pollution causes.  Polluters put a lot of pressure on EPA to keep the standards weak. The Lung Association fights to make sure they truly protect your health.

It’s time for the EPA to consider changing the ozone standard.  Ozone smog is a widespread and dangerous air pollutant. We know from much scientific review that that ozone is more dangerous than we thought before.  You can take action today to tell EPA that you want them to set an ozone standard that really does protect the health of you and your family.  Send a message today.