Air
Purification
Particulate
Pollution
Indoor Air:
Sweat The Small Stuff
Microscopic Airborne Particles Kill People Every
Day
By Janet McConnaughey, The
Associated Press
You don't have to be able to smell or see air pollution
to die from it or be adversely affected by it.
A study of the nation's 20 largest cities confirms that
small amounts of particles less than one-fifth the width of a human hair are enough to
raise the death rate. And the death rate climbs steadily along with the number of these
fine particles. The study, conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public
Health, supports Environmental Protection Agency standards that were set in 1957 and
revised in 1997, said Bob Perciasepe, EPA assistant administrator for air quality.
The findings should squelch criticism that earlier research
at the EPA, Harvard and elsewhere was inconclusive said James H. Ware, dean of the Harvard
School of Public Health. Perciasepe said the study shows that the fine particles, and not
the weather, certain chemicals or other factors, drive increases in the daily death rate.
The study, published in today's New England Journal of
Medicine, looked at death rates and at the amount of "fine particulate
pollution" -- that is, particles less than 10
microns across. A micron is one-thousandth of a millimeter. Such particles come from just about everywhere - cars,
power plants, construction, agriculture.
The study deals in amounts almost staggeringly small: micrograms
- ten millionths of a gram or about four-ten-millionths of an ounce - per cubic meter of
air. Under EPA rules, the maximum allowable level of 10-micron particles in 24 hours is
150 micrograms per cubic meter. All 20 cities averaged levels of one-third or less of the
maximum. For each 10 micrograms of particles per cubic meter of air over a 24-hour period,
the death rate from all causes rose just more than one-half of a percentage point,
researchers said.
To put it another way: If you take a large city where about
100 people die each day and the fine particle pollution rises by 20 micrograms per cubic
meter over 24 hours, you can add one death to the daily rate. If it rises 40 micrograms,
you can add two deaths.
Los Angeles averaged 148 deaths a day from 1987 through
1994. New York averaged 190.9, and Chicago 113.9.
The EPA rules on fine particulate pollution are now before
the Supreme Court but the findings have no direct bearing on the case. The main question
is whether pollution regulations must consider the costs of compliance.
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