Media inquiries: Andrew Ryan
202.862.4870 (andrewryan@aei.org)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 30, 2007

The American Lung Association (ALA) is set to release its State of the Air 2007 report (SOTA) tomorrow, Tuesday, May 1, 2007. AEI visiting fellow Joel Schwartz, a scientist who has spent much of his time working in California on environmental issues, is available to comment on the report. He makes the following points:

• Although ALA acknowledges that ozone is declining around the United States, the group reports that particulate pollution has been rising. SOTA goes only through 2005, a year when particulate pollution rose from 2004 levels. But particulates continued their long-term decline in 2006, hitting a new record low.
  
  
• The 2007 report fails to note how remarkably low ozone was during 2003-2006--the four lowest ozone years since measurements began in the 1970s. As a result, the nation went from 40% of metropolitan areas violating the eight-hour ozone standard in 2004, down to 19% at the end of 2006, the lowest violation rate ever.
  
  
• ALA also continues to count "clean" areas as "dirty." For example, only one monitoring site must fail to put an entire county in violation. ALA gives F grades to entire counties, even if almost the entire county complies with the toughest federal standards.
  
  
• ALA incorrectly attributes the decline in air pollution to favorable weather. Ozone remained low in 2005 and 2006 despite these being two of the hottest years on record. The report concludes that increased electricity production from power plants caused the rise in particulate pollution in 2005, implying that power plant pollution is increasing. Sulfur dioxide from power plants (the source of power plant particulate pollution) has actually been dropping due to a declining Clean Air Act cap on total emissions.
  
  
• ALA exaggerates the harm from current air pollution levels. A wide range of data shows that the air is already safe to breathe. For example, air pollution of all kinds has been dropping for decades, yet the prevalence of asthma has been rising, showing that the two are unrelated. EPA scientists have found that ozone, at worst, accounts for a few tenths of a percent of all respiratory distress.

Joel Schwartz can be contacted at jschwartz@aei.org or 916.203.6309.

For additional media inquiries, please contact Andrew Ryan at andrewryan@aei.org or 202.862.4870.