Air pollution is getting worse, and data show more people are dying

Unabated climate change and regulatory rollbacks have a cost, and we are only just BEGINNING to pay it. #GreenNewDeal "In 2018 alone, eroding air quality was linked to nearly 10,000 additional deaths in the U.S. relative to the 2016 benchmark, the year in which small-particle pollution reached a two-decade low, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. The study focuses on fine-particle air pollution, known as PM2.5, which is of particular concern to regulators and public health experts because its microscopic size means it can be inhaled and absorbed into the bloodstream. Its ill effects are only now starting to be fully understood — the Environmental Protection Agency didn’t even have a regulatory standard for it until 1997. Fine particles can damage a person’s respiratory system, accumulate in the brain and send people to the emergency room. The elderly appear to be especially susceptible to PM2.5, which has been linked to dementia and cognitive decline. And the data shows that many of the pollutant’s effects occur at levels well below current regulatory thresholds." "An increase in wildfires is another factor because they release large amounts of smoke and fine particles into the atmosphere. Big fires, particularly in California in 2018, played a role in driving up total national air pollution. Removing those fires from the analysis lessens the increase in pollution in 2017 and 2018 but doesn’t eliminate it, the researchers write. A final potential driver of rising pollution is the rollback of regulatory enforcement by the Environmental Protection Agency. Clean Air Act enforcement actions fell in the first two years of the Trump administration, although the researchers note that the trend toward lax enforcement started well before 2017." (ab) http://ow.ly/LxrW50wUnq4
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