The American Public Health Association (APHA) welcomed today’s unanimous Supreme Court vote upholding the way the federal government sets clean air standards. In an Amicus Curiae, or friend-of-the-court brief, APHA supported the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) position that financial costs to industry should not and cannot be considered when setting air-quality standards.
“The intention of the Clean Air Act is to protect the health of Americans by setting reasonable standards for regulating harmful pollutants. In setting these standards we must consider the incalculable cost of illness and death, not the cost to polluters,” said Mohammad N. Akhter, MD, MPH, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “We are pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision.”
Poor air conditions are directly responsible for poor health in many areas of the United States. Consider this, over 25 million children and more than 14 million seniors live in areas that fail to meet federal standards for healthy air. Over 6.5 million people with asthma and 7.2 million people with chronic lung disease live in these same areas.
The industry groups that filed the claim against the EPA include the American Trucking Associations, the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.
The largest sources of ozone and particulate air pollution are automobiles, diesel trucks and buses, and coal-fired electricity generating plants.
APHA, the largest and oldest organization of public health professionals, represents more than 50,000 members from over 50 public health occupations.
