Editorial: Of particulate concern

Friday, Sept. 29, 2006 | 7:32 a.m.

The Environmental Protection Agency's administrator has decided to tighten only one of two standards regulating the allowable amounts of soot in the air - despite recommendations from his staff and the scientific community that both standards be revised.

EPA administrator Stephen Johnson cut the short-term daily standard, which controls exposure to soot particles on an acute level, by half. But he left the long-term annual standard of allowable soot particles, which affects chronic exposure to the pollutant, at its 1997 level.

Virtually invisible to the naked eye, soot particles penetrate the lungs and circulatory system. According to a recent story by The New York Times, a large body of research shows that soot particles could be connected with "tens of thousands of deaths annually" from respiratory and coronary diseases. Power plants, industry, motor vehicle engines and motor vehicle tires most commonly emit soot into the air.

Still, despite this growing body of research, the EPA's staff recommendations and even a recommendation from the American Medical Association, Johnson said he rejected changing the annual standard "due to insufficient evidence" linking long-term exposure to soot and health problems, the Times reports.

The power industry opposed tightening either standard, which makes Johnson's decision even more dubious. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that a federal agency rejected sound scientific arguments in order to placate industries that are friends of President Bush.

Pressure from big industry has thwarted efforts to strengthen environmental protections and reduce such ill effects as global warming throughout this president's tenure. To the Bush administration, the air we breathe is just another bargaining chip.