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Most Americans Breathing Polluted Air
Lung Association Ranks L.A. Nation's Most Polluted

Reuters

WASHINGTON (May 1) - More than half of all Americans breathe polluted air
that can damage their health because the government doesn't fully enforce
clean air laws, the American Lung Association said on Wednesday.

Standards are in place to cut back pollution, but since they are not being
enforced, nearly 400 counties in the United States have smog levels above
the
legal limits, the group said. Most are in California, and all are near
cities.

''It is clearly time to get serious about enforcing all of the provisions of
the Clean Air Act so that we place Americans' health above business and
political interests,'' said John Kirkwood, president and chief executive
officer of the American Lung Association.

Kirkwood said industry was fighting to roll back important provisions of the
Clean Air Act, and ozone standards set in 1997 were still not being
enforced.

''More protective ozone standards effectively have been on hold due to
challenges by industry, which have kept states relying on weaker standards
they have used since 1979,'' Kirkwood said.

Ozone has been linked to asthma and other respiratory conditions.

A coalition of business groups, led by the American Trucking Association,
filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency's
1997 pollution standards saying they were arbitrary and had no scientific
basis.

But last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit rejected the argument, saying the EPA ''must err on the side of
caution'' and set pollution standards at ''whatever level it deems necessary
and sufficient to protect the public health.''

Other legal issues also are still unresolved concerning the pollution
standards -- which the EPA estimates would prevent 15,000 premature deaths,
350,000 cases of asthma and 1 million cases of decreased lung function in
children.

''Somehow, industry believes it needs to continue to pollute,'' Kirkwood
said. ''They have fought every step we have taken toward cleaner air for all
Americans. Now is the time for EPA to act.''

According to the association's report, the 10 most polluted areas were Los
Angeles, Riverside and Orange County in southern California; Bakersfield,
Fresno, Visalia, Tulare and Porterville, California; Houston, Galveston and
Brazoria, Texas; Atlanta; Merced, California; Knoxville, Tennessee;
Charlotte, North Carolina, and neighboring Rockville, South Carolina, and
Sacramento, California.

The cleanest big cities included Bellingham, Washington, Colorado Springs,
Colorado, and Lincoln, Nebraska.

Reut09:29 05-01-02