Clean Air News

Advocates Urge State And Federal Action To Clean Up New Jersey's Smog Problem

As the new home of NJPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Jersey can be contacted regarding this news release. 

Smog monitors in 42 states and the District of Columbia recorded more than 4,600 instances during which Americans were exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution in 2001, including 190 instances in New Jersey according to the annual Danger in the Air study by New Jersey Public Interest Research Group. Moreover, the report shows that New Jersey ranked fourth smoggiest in the country in 2001. Partial 2002 data shows that this summer, by Aug. 3, N.J. already had 209 instances when air quality exceeded the EPA's eight-hour health standard throughout the state, more than in the summer of 2000 and 2001 combined. The report comes as decision-makers at both the state and national level consider policies that could reduce, and in some cases increase the amount of smog in New Jersey's air.

"Every New Jersey resident has felt the impacts of 2002's brutal smog season," said Drew Hudson, Clean Air Advocate at NJPIRG. "If they're breathing the same air we are, our state and national leaders should act quickly on programs to reduce smog," he continued.

The report comes at a time when the state legislature is getting ready to reconvene and legislation to adopt stricter automobile emissions standards awaits consideration by both the Senate and Assembly Environment Committees. Nationally, the White House is reviewing final regulations to make it easier for major smog sources to avoid installing pollution clean-up technology.

Ground-level ozone or "smog" is a dangerous respiratory irritant that affects the health of millions of Americans each year. Mountains of research have established a link between smog levels and asthma attacks numbering in the millions each year. Every year, air pollution in New Jersey sends 22,000 people to the emergency room. Ozone smog is the key pollutant triggering over 20 percent of these visits. Recent studies have even linked smog with mortality from strokes and with the onset of asthma in children and adults.

Danger in the Air contains data from a network of more than a thousand ozone monitors across the nation. Among the reports findings are:

• During the 2001 ozone season, the national health standard for ozone of .08 parts per million averaged over an eight hour period was exceeded on no fewer than 4,634 occasions at monitors in 42 states and the District of Columbia, including 190 times here in New Jersey.
  
• 2001 was slightly smoggier than 2000, with roughly 10.3% more exceedances nationwide. In New Jersey the number of exceedances increased by over 106%.
  
• Based on number of exceedances New Jersey ranked 4th in the nation for most frequent exposure to unhealthy levels of ozone smog.
  
• Based on highest number of "smog days"-days during which at least one exceedance of the 8-hour standard was recorded- New Jersey ranked 4th.

In addition to summarizing data from 2001, the report included preliminary 2002 ozone data from 20 states and the District of Columbia and found that:

• As of August 3, New Jersey had already experienced 205 ozone exceedances, more than seven percent above the number recorded in 2001, and putting us on pace to have more total ozone days than 2000 and 2001 combined.
  
• As of August 11, the state of Indiana had already experienced 432 ozone exceedances, more than quadruple the number recorded in either 2000 or 2001.
  
• Other states that have already seen more ozone exceedances in 2002 than in the entire ozone seasons of 2000 and 2001 include: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia.

"While there are many factors contributing to ups and downs of smog levels, such as weather, heat and geographical features, the one factor we can control is the amount of smog-forming pollution we put into the air," said Hudson. "We may have to live with the heat and the geography we're given, but we do not have to live with this smog crisis because we have pollution control technologies that can cut emissions to a tiny fraction of current levels if the political will is there to enforce the law," he continued.

NJPIRG suggests five policy solutions to begin to solve the smog problem, including:

• Pass the California LEV II standards in New Jersey so that we can decrease emissions from cars and light trucks, the single largest source of air pollution in NJ and around the country.
  
• Aggressive enforcement the New Source Review program of the Clean Air Act by both states and the U.S. EPA.
  
• Timely designations of areas that are out of attainment with the national health standard for ozone by U.S. EPA.
  
• Adoption of a comprehensive new program to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and mercury from power plants, such as the one proposed by the authors of the Clean Power Act, which was passed this year by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
  
• Adoption of federal emission standards for non-road diesel engines used in construction and farm equipment, as well as new standards for the diesel fuel that is used in these engines.