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EPA: Mahoning Valley Fails New Ozone Standards
CHICAGO -- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday that 33 Ohio counties including Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties -- do not meet the new 8-hour, health-based outdoor air quality standard for ground-level ozone. The other Ohio counties are: Stark, Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, Warren, Clinton, Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, Summit, Delaware, Franklin, Licking, Fairfield, Madison, Knox, Clark, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Jefferson, Lucas, Wood, Belmont, Allen and Washington.Part or all of 474 counties in 31 states nationwide nationwide are in nonattainment for either failing to meet the 8-hour ozone standard or for causing a downwind county to fail. In a letter to Governor Bob Taft, EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt said, "These ozone standards are strong medicine. As a former governor of Utah, I recognize that having parts of your state designated as being in nonattainment will require more actions on your part to achieve cleaner, healthier air. We need to work together to make certain your state can, as other have in the past, clean the air while sustaining economic growth.""The good news here is that the air is getting cleaner," said Acting Regional Administrator Bharat Mathur. "We've made a lot of progress over the last 30-plus years. Now, to pick up the pace of environmental progress, we've raised the bar with this new tougher standard."In Pennsylvania, Mercer County was listed among those that don't meet the new standards. These counties, called nonattainment areas, have (or contribute to) ozone levels higher than allowed under EPA's 8-hour ozone national air quality standard. The standard is designed to protect the public from exposure to ground-level ozone. Ozone is unhealthy to breathe -- especially for people with Respiratory diseases, and for children and adults who are active outdoors. By law, nonattainment areas may be subject to certain requirements to reduce ozone-forming pollution.Ground-level ozone forms when emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds "cook" in the sun. Sources of these pollutants include cars and trucks, power plants, refineries and other large industrial facilities, and some natural sources.Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties in Ohio, and Mercer County in Pennsylvania, are classified as basic, and have until June 2009 to come into compliance. Deadlines for meeting the 8-hour ozone standard range from 2009 to 2010, depending on the severity of an area's ozone problem.Breathing ozone can irritate air passages, reduce lung function, aggravate asthma, and inflame and damage the cells lining the lungs. It also may aggravate chronic lung diseases like emphysema and bronchitis, may reduce the immune system's ability to fight off bacterial infections in the respiratory system and cause permanent lung damage.EPA issued the 8-hour ozone standard in July 1997, based on information demonstrating the 1-hour standard was inadequate for protecting public health. Scientific information shows that ozone can affect human health at lower levels, and over longer exposure times than one hour.Measures that states and localities may be required to take to control ozone pollution may include stricter controls on emissions from industrial facilities, additional planning requirements for transportation sources or other programs like gasoline vapor recovery controls. EPA said it plans to work with states and local governments to help develop innovative approaches to meeting the new standard. For more information, including a listing of all designations, go to: www.epa.gov/ozonedesignations. "