Friend — right now, LCV is in the middle of an all-out campaign to clean up the air we breathe. 63 million people in America are currently exposed to unhealthy spikes of daily soot air pollution, and more than 20 million people experience dangerous soot pollution year-round.

As part of that campaign, LCV members have been flooding the EPA with comments — more than 41,000 of them so far! — demanding stronger air quality standards.

To help bring the point home, I recently testified before the EPA. This is long — and more scientific detail than we usually share — but I wanted to give you all the background on this issue because this is a situation where the science really matters:
 

Hello, my name is Matthew Davis, and I am currently Senior Director of Government Affairs for the League of Conservation Voters, or LCV, and formerly was a health scientist in the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection where I worked on a previous review of this particulate matter standard.

On behalf of LCV’s more than half a million members, its Latinx community organizing project, Chispa, and network of 33 state partner organizations across the country, I urge EPA Administrator Regan to protect public health with an adequate margin of safety in the final rule — decreasing the allowable level of toxic soot in the air to 8ug/m3 annually and 25ug/m3 daily.

Particularly for those disproportionately exposed nearest to polluting industries and busy roadways in communities of color and low income communities, sensitive groups such as those with asthma and heart disease, and vulnerable lifestages such as babies to be, children, and older adults, it is critical that EPA tighten both the annual and daily limit to the lowest level that scientific experts and advisors have recommended.

Families around the country are depending on the EPA to help them achieve a very basic and important goal - allowing their children to grow up as healthy as possible and not be limited by disease or ill health.

As a parent, I understand that feeling, as I’m sure Administrator Regan does too – my son Jasper is the same age as his son Matthew. I’m fortunate to be able to afford living where there isn’t a lot of diesel or industrial pollution and most folks do not heat their homes primarily with old inefficient wood stoves.

The good news for everyone is that cleaner air is achievable and it is associated with improved health in kids’ growing and developing lungs. There is strong scientific evidence that improvements in air quality result in significant population – level improvements in lung capacity and health in school-aged children. Studies from researchers at the University of Southern California found that reductions in particulate and other air pollution meant kids in school had healthier, more robust lungs – improvements that will help them throughout childhood and adulthood, allowing those younger cohorts the opportunity to lead more active, healthier lives than their older siblings.

The 2019 Integrated Science Assessment found evidence that children and communities of color were at elevated risk of negative health effects due to increased exposure to soot pollution. Studies have also shown that toxic soot pollution even harms babies before they are born and the mothers gestating them, leading to increased risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, and other potentially health-harming pregnancy outcomes.

Here too we see big, unfair disproportionate harm to Black mothers and their babies, who also have disproportionately high exposures to particle pollution across a variety of locations, both rural and urban.

Strengthening these soot standards to the lowest levels recommended by the outside scientific experts, as EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee has previously recommended, would help President Biden and Administrator Regan to deliver on their commitments to advance environmental justice and healthy lungs for everyone.
 

Friend — the truth is, the EPA needs to hear from all of us right now. If you haven’t sent a message yet, please: add your name and urge the EPA to enact the strongest possible standards to limit soot pollution and protect public health.

Thanks for taking the time today, Friend — and for standing with us.

Onward,

Matthew Davis
Senior Director of Government Affairs
League of Conservation Voters