American Lung Association Story Archives - Page 3 of 3

Charleston Leaders, Public Health Advocates Raise Impacts Of Clean Car Rule Rollback On W.Va.

Leaders in West Virginia’s capital city are drawing attention to the local health and economic effects of the Trump administration’s rollback of federal fuel-efficiency rules.

In late March, in the midst of the first surge of coronavirus cases in the U.S., the federal Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalized a two-part rollback of the Obama-era clean car standards. Known as the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles rule, it requires automakers to increase the fuel economy of passenger cars by 1.5 percent each year.

The previous standards set by President Obama in 2012 mandated a 5 percent annual increase in fuel economy.

“The [sic] standards provide numerous benefits to Charleston families, including reducing air pollution in our city and saving families money at the pump,” said Charleston City Council member Chuck Overstreet. “The last thing that we need to be doing during this public health and economic crisis is gutting standards that protect our health and put more money back into the pockets of the folks across our community.”

Speakers at Thursday’s virtual press conference noted the high rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases among West Virginians. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2018, West Virginia was tied with Maine for having the highest percent of residents with the chronic disease, at 12.3 percent.

Cabell, Kanawha, Ohio and Wood counties had four or more days with unhealthy ozone levels, according to the American Lung Association’s 2019 annual report. Ozone is a powerful lung irritant that can exacerbate asthma attacks and make it hard for people with lung diseases, like COPD, to breathe. The Lung Association gave those counties a “c” letter grade.

Del. Mike Pushkin, a Democrat who represents Kanawha County, also noted the clean car rule rollback hurts West Virginians’ pocketbooks, at a time when thousands of residents are out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The one who gets hurt the most … it’s the consumer at the pump,” he said. “Our working families there will have to pay more to gas up their cars.”

Under the 2012 rule, automakers were to produce vehicles that would average about 47 miles per gallon by 2025. Cars under the new proposal will average 37 miles per gallon. Greenhouse gas emissions are also expected to rise by nearly a billion tons.

EPA officials said the new rule “strikes the right regulatory balance for the environment, the auto industry, the economy, safety and American families.”

The speakers, which also included Charleston City Councilmember Robert Sheets and Robin Blakeman with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Interfaith Power & Light, encouraged concerned residents to reach out to members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation.

The rule is being challenged in court by more than 20 states and environmental groups.

Air Pollution Improves Across West Virginia, Smog Worsens

Air quality across West Virginia is improving, with levels of fine particle air pollution some of the best ever measured, but smog levels have increased, according to the American Lung Association’s annual “State of the Air” report released today.

The 2018 report finds that West Virginia metro areas, such as Charleston, Morgantown, Fairmont, Parkersburg and Huntington, beat the national standard when it came to levels of fine particle, or soot, pollution.

Fine particle pollution includes tiny bits of dust released by coal-fired power plants, diesel-burning vehicles, wildfires and wood-burning stoves. This type of pollution can trigger asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes if the small particles get lodged in the lungs.

It was a different story for ozone pollution. Ozone is a powerful lung irritant that can exacerbate asthma attacks and make it hard for people with lung diseases, like COPD, to breathe.

The report found only Greenbrier County held on to its “A” grade. Several areas saw an increase in unhealthy days for ozone including in Wheeling, Charleston and Huntington.

Kevin Stewart, director of environmental health for the American Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic, said those trends were consistent across the nation.

“We’ve been hoping over time, we’d be able to continue this trend into very good grades,” he said. “And in fact, in last year’s report it was something that was very remarkable in terms of the number of counties that showed very good grades. It’s a little disappointing this year around to find that we’re doing a little bit of backtracking.”

The report said a warming climate may help explain the boost in unhealthy ozone pollution levels; 2016 was the second-hottest year on record, and high air temperatures accelerate ozone production.

“We know that ozone is not something that is produced directly out of smokestacks and tailpipes, but rather the precursors to ozone air pollution are emitted and then cook in the atmosphere especially in hot, sunny, still summer days,” Stewart said. “Those circumstances are exacerbated when air temperatures are higher than normal and there’s a lot of sunlight.”

The report analyzed air quality data collected by federal, state and local air monitoring devices between 2014 and 2016, the most recent data available. Data was collected in 10 West Virginia counties.

Report: W.Va. Makes Little Progress on Tobacco Control

The American Lung Association says West Virginia isn’t making much progress on tobacco control.

An annual report released Wednesday by the association gives the Mountain State failing grades for tobacco prevention and control program funding, access to cessation services and tobacco taxes.

West Virginia received a D for smoke-free air.

The lung association says in a news release that West Virginia spends 25 percent of the funding level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for tobacco prevention and cessation. State funding for these programs has fallen from $6.5 million in fiscal 2012 to about $4.8 million fiscal 2015.

The lung association says West Virginia should increase this funding, along with the state excise tax on cigarettes.

Air Pollution Improving in West Virginia But, There's More Ozone

A report just released by American Lung Association, “State of the Air 2014,” shows air pollution in West Virginia’s metropolitan areas has generally improved but, there’s more ozone, or smog, in every county where it was measured.

Health Risks

Kevin Stewart, American Lung Association’s director of environmental health for the mid-Atlantic region, explains that particle pollution—sometimes called soot pollution—is the matter in the air expelled from sources like exhaust pipes or industrial plants. It’s the fine, microscopic dust sometimes small enough to pass directly into the blood streams through the lungs. And it can not only exacerbate respiratory health problems, but also cause heart problems.

“Most people don’t think about air pollution causing heart problems but it does,” Stewart said.

The Lung Association’s 2014 report indicates that the overall ambient air quality throughout the state with regard to particle pollution is improving, or at least throughout every county where it was measured. He says measures takes to clean up the air seem to be taking effect.

But then there’s ozone. Stewart says way up in the sky, ozone is a good thing. It protects us from harmful rays from the sun. But down here on the ground, it’s a major health hazard.

The State of the Air in West Virginia

The report indicates that ozone levels have pretty much gotten worse throughout the country. That’s true in West Virginia and especially in the Charleston-Huntington area, which ranked worst in the state.

Some grades around the state:

The Lung Assoication gave Kanawha County a D last year.
This year’s report combines Kanawha and Cabell counties with several others and gives the areas an F and D, respectively.
Other Counties that has worse ozone pollution than last year include Wood, Monongalia and Hancock.

You can find your town’s grade with this tool:

The American Lung Association says the worsening ozone levels likely can be attributed to warmer 2012 temperatures, reflecting national trends.

From the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection echoes the Lung Association’s reports saying air quality has and continues to improve, even in areas like the northern gas fields, despite increased drilling activity.

The DEP reports, however that there are issues with sulfur dioxide in Brooke and Marshall Counties related to large industrial sources like power plants that are located there. In fact the Lung Association’s report indicates that Marshall County was worst in the state for its long-term particle pollution level. That’s despite the fact that the Wheeling, WV-OH metro area had its lowest year-round particle pollution levels in the 15-year history (although it’s still 19^th-worst nationwide!).

Change Is (Still Needed) In The Air

Stewart, from the American Lung Association, says there are several things to remember when considering this data.

First of all, the system we have needs to be improved. Many counties with lower populations don’t require air monitoring, for example. Boone, McDowell, Mingo, and Wyoming, just to name a few. And in many of the areas where air quality is monitored, the actually monitoring might not take place in the most telling spots. And he says there are limits to the monitoring technology.

Moreover, Stewart says current air quality standards are still inadequate to protect public health.

“Even if you meet the standards,” he said, “you can still have adverse health effects from the air pollution. The Lung Association believes that we need to improve the air quality standards so that we don’t have that kind of scenario going on.”

No one will deny, Steward says, that the country today is not the same country it was 40 years ago. Standards have certainly improved. But he asserts that current circumscribed standards of air quality still leave the public footing many hidden health and standard of living costs.

What To Do:

The Lung Association lists several ways to personally combat bad air quality. Some of them include:

Drive less.Combine trips, walk, bike, carpool or vanpool, and use buses, subways or other alternatives to driving. Vehicle emissions are a major source of air pollution. Support community plans that provide ways to get around that don’t require a car, such as more sidewalks, bike trails and transit systems.

Use less electricity. Turn out the lights and use energy-efficient appliances. Generating electricity is one of the biggest sources of pollution, particularly in the eastern United States.

Don’t burn wood or trash. Burning firewood and trash are among the largest sources of particles in many parts of the country. If you must use a fireplace or stove for heat, convert your woodstoves to natural gas, which has far fewer polluting emissions. Compost and recycle as much as possible and dispose of other waste properly; don’t burn it. Support efforts in your community to ban outdoor burning of construction and yard wastes. Avoid the use of outdoor hydronic heaters, also called outdoor wood boilers, which are frequently much more polluting than woodstoves.

Make sure your local school system requires clean school buses, which includes replacing or retrofitting old school buses with filters and other equipment to reduce emissions. Make sure your local schools don’t idle their buses, a step that can immediately reduce emissions.