EPA Will Consider Strengthening Particle Pollution Standards

“EPA’s announcement today that it will reconsider strengthening our protections against particle pollution is a vital step towards fulfilling the agency’s legal obligation to protect the health of all people. Our current standards for this dangerous pollutant are inadequate to safeguard Americans against the heart attacks, asthma attacks and premature deaths that are linked to it. The previous administration’s refusal to strengthen our national health-based standards for deadly particles was not based on rigorous science, and it burdened frontline communities as it did not consider the environmental justice impacts of insufficiently protective standards.

“We now urge EPA to act swiftly and avoid any further delay in reviewing these crucial clean air safeguards, and to put truly protective, science-based standards in place. Millions of people across America have been living with unhealthy, and sometimes lethal, levels of particle pollution for far too long.”

- Rachel Fullmer, Environmental Defense Fund senior attorney