EPA Staff Question Adequacy of Current Particle Pollution Limits

EPA staff assessing the national air quality standards for fine particle pollution aren’t convinced that the existing limits do enough to protect public health.

They wrote in a draft policy assessment published Sept. 11 that scientific studies, air quality analyses, and risk assessments “can reasonably be viewed as calling into question the adequacy of the public health protection afforded by the combination of the current annual and 24-hour primary PM2.5 standards,” referring to microscopic particles.

Those fine particles of smoke released by fossil fuel combustion in automobiles and power plants snake their way through the ...