Dr. Mary Ross, Project Officer
Attention Docket ID No. OAR-2001-0017
Environmental Protection Agency
Air and Radiation Docket Center, MC 6102T
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20460

RE: My comments on particulate air pollution

Dear Dr. Ross,

I am deeply concerned about particulate air pollution, which has serious effects on human health. We are facing an asthma epidemic among children in the United States, and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases among adults are serious and widespread. Hundreds of scientific studies have found links between particulate air pollution -- at levels people are breathing today -- and respiratory symptoms, increased use of asthma medications, missed school days from respiratory illness, emergency room visits and premature death.

The proposed fine particle standards in the EPA's draft staff paper are an improvement over current standards, but need to be lowered further to protect public health with an adequate margin of safety. In particular, it is not clear that the current EPA proposal goes far enough to protect the health of children, the elderly and people with heart and lung disease. The EPA's proposed coarse particle standard is also not strong enough to protect public health. Coarse particles in the air can worsen respiratory symptoms and have been linked to increased hospital admissions.

The EPA should not allow numerous high pollution days to occur before a violation is recorded, and must not allow averaging between monitors in polluted areas and those in cleaner places. Monitor averaging can be used as an excuse to avoid controlling serious local pollution problems. Finally, air quality standards must be set exclusively to protect health. The EPA should not include cost or technical feasibility considerations in the decision on this issue.

For the health of my family and of future generations, I strongly urge you to set standards that will make the air safe to breathe in all of our communities.

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