Letter to the editor: EPA's new soot standards welcome

I appreciate the Trib’s consistent coverage of air quality events. As a Pittsburgh resident, I have grown all too familiar with the smell of “code orange” alerts. Stepping outside, I can often tell without checking the news that the air is thick with soot. This odor is not just an annoyance — I’m terrified that it is shaving years off of my life.

Soot is a deadly pollutant, small enough to penetrate vital organs. It may be responsible for 200,000 excess deaths in the United States annually. That’s why I was relieved when the EPA recently unveiled plans for tightening soot pollution standards.

Better standards will have an outsized impact in our region, where residents are frequently exposed to dangerous levels of pollution. But the details matter. Limiting soot pollution to 8 micrograms per cubic meter could quadruple the lives saved versus a 10 microgram annual standard.

It’s great that the EPA is addressing this dangerous pollution. To make the most of this opportunity, they should go further by adopting the strongest possible standard. Pennsylvanians should speak with a united voice: When it comes to our health, every microgram matters!

Dan Brown

Bloomfield

The writer is a Western Pennsylvania field organizer for PennEnvironment.