After the first 20 years of the Clean Air Act, in 1990, it prevented more than 200,000 premature deaths and nearly 700,000 cases of chronic bronchitis were prevented. We rarely think about the air we breathe, but a catastrophe that occurred seventy years ago highlighted the threat of air pollution to our health. Over a five-day period in 1948, twenty people died and thousands became ill because of a cloud of air pollution caused by a local factory that was formed above the city of Donora, Pennsylvania. This tragedy set in motion significant efforts to ensure that our air maintains life and does not endanger life.
The Clean Air Act, enacted in 1970 and reinforced in 1990, gave the federal government the authority to enforce regulations that limit air pollution. We have learned a lot about the relationship between air pollution and health through thousands of epidemiological and controlled studies. Air pollution, including particles, ozone, heavy metals and acid gases, is harmful and can worsen respiratory conditions in children, such as asthma. In this commentary, we will provide data on the many effects of airborne pollution on childhood lung diseases.
We will review the history of current air pollution regulations, describe current initiatives that threaten these regulations, and summarize scientific evidence that demonstrates the importance of maintaining, and even strengthening, air pollution standards for children's health. The Clean Air Act (CAA) is the primary federal air quality law in the United States, which aims to reduce and control air pollution across the country. Initially enacted in 1963 and amended many times since then, it is one of the first and most influential modern environmental laws in the United States. The CAA has been challenged in court many times, both by environmental groups seeking stricter enforcement and by states and utility companies seeking greater leeway in regulation.
While its exact benefits depend on what is being counted, the Clean Air Act has substantially reduced air pollution and improved air quality benefits in the United States. In the United States, which the EPA credits with saving trillions of dollars and thousands of lives every year. Currently, the following are the main regulatory programs under the Clean Air Act. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) govern the amount of ground-level ozone (O), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM10, PM2), lead (Pb), sulfur dioxide (SO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO) allowed into outdoor air.
The NAAQS establish acceptable levels of certain air pollutants in the ambient air of United States. Before 1965, there was no national program to develop ambient air quality standards, and before 1970, the federal government had no primary responsibility for developing them. The 1970 CAA amendments required the EPA to determine which air pollutants posed the greatest threat to public health and welfare and to enact NAAQS and air quality criteria for them. Health-based standards were called primary NAAQS, while standards were established to protect public welfare other than health (for example, in 1971, the EPA enacted regulations on sulfur oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, photochemical oxidants, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen dioxide) (36 FR 2238).
Initially, the EPA did not include lead as a standard contaminant, but instead controlled it through mobile origin authorities, but was required to do so following successful litigation by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in 1976 (43 FR 4625). The 1977 CAA amendments created a process for periodic review of the NAAQS list and created a permanent and independent scientific review committee to provide technical information about the NAAQS to the EPA. The EPA added regulations for PM2.5 in 1997 (62 FR 3865) and updates the NAAQS from time to time based on new environmental and health sciences. National standards for hazardous air pollutant emissions (NESHAPs) regulate the amount of 187 toxic air pollutants that can be emitted by industrial facilities and other sources. According to the CAA, hazardous air pollutants (PAHs or toxic air substances) are air pollutants other than those for which NAAQS exist, which threaten human health and well-being.
NEHAPs are the standards used to control, reduce and eliminate PAH emissions from stationary sources, such as industrial facilities. The 1970 CAA required the EPA to draw up a list of PAHs and then develop national emission standards for each of them. The original NEHAPs were health-based standards. L, Tooltip Public Law (United States) 101—549 (Title III) codified the EPA list and required the creation of technology-based standards in accordance with Maximum Achievable Control (MACT) technology.
Over the years, the EPA has issued dozens of NESHAP regulations, which have developed NEHAPS by pollutant, by category of industrial source and by industrial process. There are also NESHAPs for mobile sources (transport), although these are mainly managed under mobile origin authorities. The 1990 amendments (which added Article 112 (d-f) of the CAA) also created a process by which the EPA was to review and update its NESHAPs every eight years, identify any risks that persisted after the application of the MACT, and develop additional standards necessary to protect public health. The CAA ozone program is a technological transition program aimed at gradually eliminating the use of chemicals that damage the ozone layer.
In accordance with the commitments made by the United States in the Montreal Protocol, Title VI of the CAA, added by the 1990 CAA amendments, established rules on the use and production of chemicals that damage the Earth's stratospheric ozone layer. Under Title VI, the EPA implements programs to phase out substances that destroy the ozone layer, to monitor their import and export, to determine exemptions for their continued use and to define practices for destroying them, maintaining and repairing the equipment that uses them, identifying new alternatives to those still in use, and licensing technicians to use those chemicals. Regulations on pollutants emitted by internal combustion engines in vehicles. Since 1965, Congress has ordered increasingly strict controls on vehicle engine technology and reductions in tailpipe emissions.
Currently, the law requires that the EPA establish and regularly update regulations on pollutants that may endanger public health, coming from a wide variety of motor vehicle classes, that incorporate technology to achieve the highest possible degree of emission reduction, taking into account availability, cost, energy and safety (42 U, S, C.The EPA sets standards for exhaust gases, evaporative emissions, toxic air products, vapor recovery for refueling, and vehicle inspection and maintenance for various classes of vehicles that drive on highways. The EPA regulations on light vehicles cover passenger cars, minivans, passenger vans, light trucks and SUVs. Heavy vehicle regulations apply to large trucks and buses. The EPA first issued motorcycle emission standards in 1977 (42 FR 112) and updated them in 2004 (69 FR 239).
In the clean air amendments of 1970 (Pub. L, Tooltip Public Law (United States) 91—60, Congress considerably expanded the federal mandate by requiring comprehensive federal and state regulations for industrial and mobile sources. The law established national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), new source performance standards (NSPS), and national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAPs), and significantly strengthened federal law enforcement authority, all with the goal of achieving ambitious air pollution reduction goals. The 1990 amendments also included the requirement that the Department of Labor issue, no later than 12 months after the date of publication of the amendments, and in collaboration with the EPA, a process safety standard.
The text also highlighted the 14 principles on which it should be based. These were implemented in 1992 in the OSHA process safety management regulation (Title 29 CFR, Part 1910, Subpart H § 1910.11), as well as in the 1996 EPA Risk Management Program (RMP) rule (Title 40 CFR, Part 6). Amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1990 demonstrate that a dynamic economy and strong public health protection can go hand in hand. Two subsequent reports were designed to estimate the direct incremental benefits and costs of the amendments to the Clean Air Act compared to the initial Clean Air Act standards using a design fundamentally similar to the initial analysis with updated modeling techniques. Climate change poses a challenge to the management of conventional air pollutants in the United States because summer conditions are warmer and drier, which can cause an increase in episodes of air stagnation.
Among the most important, the national ambient air quality standards program establishes standards for the concentrations of certain pollutants in outdoor air, and the national emission standards program for hazardous air pollutants, which sets standards for the emissions of certain hazardous pollutants from specific sources. Tooltip Public Law (United States) 89—27 amended the Clean Air Act of 1963 and established the first federal vehicle emission standards, starting with 1968 models. In fact, there have been measured increases in employment as a result of the implementation of air quality standards. More recently, the Trump administration tried to repeal the Clean Air Act to weaken or not enforce clean air standards and placate the dirty energy industry. In addition, the Clean Air Act and its amendments have dramatically reduced vehicle-related pollutants, and EPA officials estimate that, when fully implemented in 2030, the new vehicle and fuel regulations will achieve a cost-benefit ratio of 16 to 1.The tragedy opened a national dialogue about the seriousness of air pollution and the urgent need for strong federal legislation and regulations.
