Posted on 04/25/2012 6:20:51 PM PDT by Libloather
Report says 40 percent of the public breathes unhealthy air
By Andrew Restuccia - 04/25/12 02:53 PM ET
More than 40 percent of the public lives in regions with unhealthy levels of air pollution, a new report from the American Lung Association says.
The public health group, in its annual State of the Air report, said air quality has dramatically improved in recent decades as a result of the Clean Air Act. But it warned that more action is needed to better protect the public from air pollution like smog or soot.
The report finds that more than 127.2 million people, or 41 percent of the public, live in counties that have unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, which experts say can aggravate respiratory problems like asthma and lung disease.
But the report notes that many cities are making major progress in reducing pollution levels.
“Twenty-two of the 25 cities with the most ozone pollution improved their air quality over the past year’s report,” the new study says. “More than half of the country’s most smog-polluted cities experienced their best year yet.”
The report analyzed information gathered from monitoring sites in 2008, 2009 and 2010, the most up-to-date data available.
The Obama administration has issued a slew of regulations in recent years aimed at improving air quality, including rules to limit air pollution from industrial boilers and natural-gas drilling. Republicans in Congress have taken aim at the Environmental Protection Agency, working to limit or repeal several major air pollution regulations because of their cost.
President Obama scuttled planned EPA regulations that would have tightened existing ozone standards, a major defeat for public health groups like the American Lung Association.
The groups argue that the existing ozone standards, put in place during the George W. Bush administration, don’t fully protect the public.
But the planned regulations came under intense scrutiny from Republicans, who said the rules would put a major burden on industry.
Obama, in scuttling the tighter ozone rules, cited his pledge to reduce regulatory uncertainty for businesses and said the regulations are slated to come up for review in 2013.
I’m one of the 60%. Fresh pure, clean, mountain air every day.
Conditions will never be pristine enough for these interest groups.
Might be fun to see a roster of major domos at the America Lung Association, their salaries (likely inflated), and their political contributions.
I smell George Soros
Woman, children and minorities affected most.
Thanks Libloather.
No, the report says that by every single measure, success has been reached in the goals of air pollution, and in most cases, far exceeded any previous goals. But this is how the scam works - you just change the goals arbitrarily. Each time it is obtained, you move the end zone a little further down the field.
Right now, we’re on a 20 mile long field, the original goal line just under 19.85 miles back.
Pop the campaign bottles, celebrate the great victory, and stop trying to make the end goal unobtainable.
Pollution - Tom Lehrer
If you visit American city
You will find it very pretty
Just two things of which you must beware
Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air
Pollution, pollution
They got smog and sewage and mud
Turn on your tap
And get hot and cold running crud
See the halibuts and the sturgeons
Being wiped out by detergeons
Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly
But they don’t last long if they try
Pollution, pollution
You can use the latest toothpaste
And then rinse your mouth
With industrial waste
Just go out for a breath of air
And you’ll be ready for Medicare
The city streets are really quite a thrill
If the hoods don’t get you, the monoxide will
Pollution, pollution
Wear a gas mask and a veil
Then you can breathe
Long as you don’t inhale
Lots of things there that you can drink
But stay away from the kitchen sink
The breakfast garbage that you throw in to the bay
They drink as lunch in San José
So go to the city
See the crazy people there
Like lambs to the slaughter
They’re drinking the water
And breathing, cough, the air
If citizens in the big cities are breathing bad air, that’s sure to affect their mental processing. Therefore, I think we should exempt them from voting (and thus, forming public policy) until such time that we can reach the strictest environmentalists’ air standards.
If we had had 2012 air in 1963 there would be no Clean Air Act, because no one would have dreamed we needed one.
Funny enough where I live (1200 ft above sea level) here in MA this town was a magnet for people with health issues because of the clean air, etc.
Anyone downwind of Al Gore has a problem too
Natural gas drilling has nothing to do with the air pollution in cities as most gas sites are far away from them.
More liberal BS. Notice that most big polluted cities are run by Democrats. I have a 1971 photo of yellow pollution clouds hanging across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. I had never seen anything like it.
ALA forgets that trees create a natural air pollution of their own, esp. in the mountains, that can drift into cities. Solution - cut down all the trees. Illogical just as liberals are.
Yep. Alaskan air is pretty nice, too. :o)
Nothing like setting the bar low.
If you're gonna have industry you're gonna have *some* pollution.For a country as prosperous and productive as ours we have it *damn* good "pollution-wise".
I love Tom Lehrer but he *is* a *notorious* leftist and has been for years.
Actually, productive and prosperous countries tend to have less pollution than average.
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