EPA smog proposal sparks debate over environmental justice

I never thought I'd see the day when the Nat'l Conference of Black Mayors was taking the side of corporate interests at the expense of the health of their own people. These are some sad fucking days we're living in. Damn.
--###--

original-earthnews

EPA smog proposal sparks debate over environmental justice

Posted on September 6th, 2007
By Daniel Cusick

Greenwire: ATLANTA — A rift between black mayors and public health experts over long-held notions about the racial dimension of environmental problems took center stage yesterday at a hearing here on a U.S. EPA proposal for tightening air pollution standards for ground-level ozone.

Experts on public health in minority communities argued at the Atlanta Federal Center that poor air quality takes a disproportionate toll on blacks, and urged EPA to tighten the standard.

But the National Conference of Black Mayors — representing more than 600 officials — strongly endorsed continuation of the current standard, set in 1997, which limits ozone concentrations to 80 parts per billion over an 8-hour period.

“Cleaner air is important to our communities, but it is not the only thing that affects the health of our people,” said Vanessa Williams, the conference’s executive director. “The health and welfare of our communities is also dependent on having good jobs, economic growth and the quality of life that goes with it.”

In proposing a tighter ozone standard last June, EPA said the current health standard is not adequate to protect public health. While the agency has proposed tightening the ozone health standard to between 70 and 75 parts per billion over an 8-hour period, advocacy groups and many medical experts have called for an even tighter standard, to as low as 60 parts per billion.

Williams added that a tightening of the ozone standard would cause many cities and counties in the Deep South to violate federal mandates for reducing smog, making it more difficult to attract new industry and allow established businesses to expand.

The “stigma of being designated nonattainment,” she said, would have “a disparate impact on communities undertaking economic revitalization efforts and rebuilding, like those in the Gulf Coast after Katrina.”

‘Abominable’

But scholars from Clark Atlanta University, Dillard University and the Morehouse School of Medicine disagreed.

~snip~
.
.
.
complete article here