Washington, D.C. June 15, 2011 – Today, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is holding a hearing to discuss the important connection between clean air and public health. As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency prepares a new regulation that would curb toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants, saving up to 17,000 lives each year, and plans later this summer to finalize new limits on ozone pollution that would save up to 12,000 lives each year, the Senate will hear from doctors, nurses and the EPA administrator about why cleaning up air pollution leads to better, healthier lives.
The following statement is from Stephanie Maddin, associate legislative counsel at Earthjustice:
"Today's hearing will highlight the critical link between clean air and public health. Across the nation, physicians and nurses know all too well that poor air quality poses an extreme burden for many of our most vulnerable citizens and children. That's why public health experts will present well documented science and medical data demonstrating that people are living shorter and less healthy lives due to preventable air pollution.
"Unfortunately, industrial polluters want us to ignore the overwhelming medical and scientific studies that show we can clean up our air and help more Americans live healthier lives. If polluters succeed in blocking or delaying already overdue clean air protections, many thousands of Americans will continue to experience preventable asthma attacks, heart attacks, cancer and other illnesses. The worst outcome of failing to protect Americans from this air pollution will be premature death.
"The Senate is offering the public a chance to see the full scope of our air pollution problem, how it can be solved by employing existing pollution control strategies, and how some of our elected officials place the greed of big polluters ahead of the health of their constituents and fellow Americans. ‘Protection' is at the heart of the Environmental Protection Agency's name and mission for good reason. The agency's ability to enforce clean air standards is critical to cleaning up pollution and truly protecting the health of the American people."
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