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Dust-up Over Air Pollution

© Kenneth Friedman

Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust. But not if the Environmental Protection Agency has anything to say about it. In late November 1996, the EPA announced a set of new air-quality rules scheduled to take effect in 2004, which would reduce the size of allowable emission particles (particulate) to 2.5 microns in diameter. Someone once said that a micron is about the size of a period at the end of a sentence in a magazine. Someone else said it was less than the thickness of a human hair. Let's call it small at any rate.

The EPA already regulates emissions larger than 2.5 microns and says the health benefits from regulating air pollution since 1970 far outweigh the costs to industry, government and the economy in general.

The new rule comes in response to a lawsuit by the American Lung Assn., pressure from health and environmental organizations, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, and recent scientific evidence. Proponents of the rule claim that tighter regulation of particulate is needed to reduce the number of Americans, estimated at from 64,000 to 100,000, who die yearly from air pollution. In Business Week (Dec. 2, 1996), Mary Beth Regan reports that if you live in one of the most polluted U.S. cities, your chances of succumbing to an air pollution-related cause are 15 percent to 17 percent higher than if you live in a less polluted area. The new EPA rule would affect as many as 250 communities where fine particulate pollution and ozone are at their worst. Check out whether you live in one of the Top 50 Metro Areas, courtesy of the NRDC.

People are concerned about the fine and coarse dust particles that comprise air pollution because they affect human health when inhaled. Fine particles are mostly man-made, such as carbon, lead, sulphur and nitrogen compounds. "Primary" fine particles, such as soot, fly ash, condensed metals and vapors, are created and introduced into the atmosphere during physical or chemical processes. Coarse particles are mostly naturally derived as a result of rock-grinding, stone-crushing and erosion. These include gypsum, limestone, marble, calcium carbonate, silicon and silicone carbide, among others.

Our noses filter large dust particles but not fine particles, which are drawn into and lodge in the lungs. These particles include sulfuric acid, arsenic, beryllium, nickel and carcinogens such as benzo(a)pyrene, benz(a)anthracene and metallic substances and fibers. High levels of lead can damage the central nervous system; low levels cause brain damage and behavioral problems in children. Asbestos fibers cause lung cancer; other pollutants such as nickel, arsenic, chromium, talc and fiberglass also have been linked to cancer. It has only been since late 1995 or so

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