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EPA Study Reveals Risks from Air Toxics
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just released a report that allows you to see the risks in your neighborhood from a group of toxic air pollutants. The study, called the Air Toxics Assessment for 2002, looks at the levels of 181 specific air pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer, called “Air Toxics.” This study adds even more evidence to what we already know—that air pollution is a real and urgent health issue in America.
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Revealing health risks
This study, called by EPA a snapshot in time is a tool to broadly estimate both the cancer and non-cancer risks from breathing these pollutants. EPA has also created maps to show the distribution of that risk. From this study using data from 2002, EPA has concluded that:
- Two million people have an increased risk of cancer from the air toxics.
- On average, approximately one in every 27,000 people face an "increased likelihood of contracting cancer as a result of breathing air toxics from outdoor sources if they were exposed to 2002 emission levels over the course of their lifetime."
- The risks come from three major categories of sources: local industry "hot spots"; "mobile sources" at highways, ports, and rails; and a large group of persistent pollutants that remain in the atmosphere and do not appear to have a specific source.
EPA for the first time also included assessments of "respiratory harm", recognizing that these pollutants can also cause harm that does not result in cancer. Also, this study does not tell us how many cancer cases there are, nor does it help to determine the kinds of cancers. It does help us determine where threats to our health are most likely to be, and from which sources, so we can step up the work to clean them up.
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Dirty diesel
The American Lung Association is pleased that EPA has released its latest assessment of health risks from air toxics. Tools like this, and our own State of the Air report, are important because they turn attention to an all-too-often neglected health hazard – polluted, toxic air.
Unfortunately, EPA, citing insufficient data, chose not to include in the study the air toxic believed to pose the greatest cancer risk: diesel pollution. If diesel pollution were factored in, the cancer risks from air toxics would likely be even higher, and more widespread.
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What we’re doing
The American Lung Association has been leading the fight for healthy air for more than a half a century. We have successfully moved the EPA to tighten clean air standards. We have pushed for power plants to clean up smog-forming emissions and have been on the front lines fighting for cleaner diesel fuels and diesel engines.
Every community deserves to breathe healthy air. That’s why the American Lung Association supports a Clean Air Agenda. At the top of that agenda is cleaning up our existing fleet of diesel trucks, buses, and construction equipment. You can join our fight for healthy air, free of cancer and other disease causing toxins. Learn more.
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What you can do
You can do your part to help improve air quality today. Drive less. Don’t burn wood or trash. Use less electricity, and make sure your local school system requires clean school buses. You can join the fight for cleaner air laws by becoming an American Lung Association e-advocate. Your support makes our work possible. Make a donation today to help the American Lung Association continue to fight for healthy lungs and clean air across the country.
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