Do Conservatives Want Their Constituents To Die? Judge For Yourself As The American Lung Association Looks At America's Most Unhealthful Air

With the Republican Party now dedicated to making their corporate donors' dreams come true by defunding and gutting the EPA, the American Lung Association just released an annual report showing that almost half the people in the country, 154 million Americans, already live in counties where smog levels are too high.

[A]bout 48% of U.S. residents live in counties where smog (ozone) is too high, 20% live in areas where there are too many short-term spikes in pollution and 6% live in areas with harmful year-round soot (particle pollution).

About 17 million Americans live in areas afflicted by all three air pollution hazards.
This worries scientists since research suggests air pollution threatens human health-- and not just the lungs.

On days in which smog levels spike, there's an increase in hospital admissions for respiratory illnesses, heart attacks and stroke in the two or three days following it, said Michael Jerrett, a professor of environmental health sciences at University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health.

Besides posing both long-term and short-term risks, pollution can contribute to low birth weights, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke and, ultimately, shorter life spans, he warned.

This is due, in part, to insidious changes caused by chronic exposure to pollution. According to Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, small particles of pollution can lodge deep in the lungs, triggering an inflammatory process that, over time, can spread elsewhere in the body and damage blood vessels and the heart.

The report found that the cities with the worst air include: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside; Bakersfield-Delano; Visalia-Porterville; Fresno-Madera; Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Yuba City (Calif.-Nev.); Hanford-Corcoran; San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos; and Merced-- all of which are in California with the exception of one county just across the border in Nevada.

Rounding out the top 10 list for smog is Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, Texas and Charlotte-Gastonia-Salisbury, N.C.-S.C.

Many of those same places show up on the top 10 list for year-round soot. That list includes: Bakersfield-Delano; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside; Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Ariz.; Visalia-Porterville; Hanford-Corcoran; Fresno-Madera; Pittsburgh-New Castle, Pa.; Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, Ala.; Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington, Ohio-Ky.-Ind.; and Louisville-Jefferson County-Elizabethtown-Scottsburg, Ky.-Ind.

But there is some good news, said Janice Nolen, director of national policy for the American Lung Association. The majority of cities with polluted air have actually improved. Nolen credited the Clean Air Act, which, since its passage more than 40 years ago, has forced car and diesel truck manufacturers and coal-fired power plants, among others, to reduce emissions.

"The 'State of the Air 2011' finds the Clean Air Act is working. All metro areas on the list of the 25 cities most polluted by ozone showed improvement over the previous report, and 15 of those cities experienced their best year yet," Nolen said. "All but two of the 25 cities most polluted with year-round particle pollution improved over last year's report."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the Clean Air Act saved 160,000 lives in 2010 alone.

And that's what the Republicans in Congress intend to turn around. The Koch Bros have spent millions of dollars financing the political careers of conservative Republicans dedicated to shutting down EPA. And last month the House voted to block it from implementing any climate change rules, something that failed to garner enough support in the Senate. Reactionary Michigan congressloon Fred Upton, an heir to the Whirlpool fortune, is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee put forward legislation that would amend the Clean Air Act "to prohibit the Administrator of the EPA from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas (GHG) to address climate change."

Excludes GHGs from the definition of "air pollutant" for purposes of addressing climate change.

Exempts from such prohibition: (1) implementation and enforcement of the rule, "Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards and Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards" and finalization, implementation, enforcement, and revision of the proposed rule, "Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles"; (2) implementation of the renewable fuel program; (3) statutorily authorized federal research, development, and demonstration programs and voluntary programs addressing climate change; (4) implementation and enforcement of stratospheric ozone protection to the extent that such implementation or enforcement only involves class I or II substances; and (5) implementation and enforcement of requirements for monitoring and reporting of carbon dioxide emissions. Provides that none of such exemptions shall cause a GHG to be subject to regulations relating to prevention of significant deterioration of air quality or considered an air pollutant for purposes of air pollution prevention and control permits.

Repeals and makes ineffective the following rules and actions:

• "Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases"

• "Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases Under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act"

• "Reconsideration of Interpretation of Regulations That Determine Pollutants Covered by Clean Air Act Permitting Programs" and the memorandum, "EPA's Interpretation of Regulations that Determine Pollutants Covered by Federal Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) Permit Program"

• "Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule"

• "Action To Ensure Authority To Issue Permits Under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program to Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Finding of Substantial Inadequacy and SIP Call"

• "Action To Ensure Authority To Issue Permits Under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program to Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Finding of Failure To Submit State Implementation Plan Revisions Required for Greenhouse Gases"

• "Action to Ensure Authority To Issue Permits Under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program to Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Federal Implementation Plan"

• "Action to Ensure Authority to Implement Title V Permitting Programs Under the Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule"

• "Determinations Concerning Need for Error Correction, Partial Approval and Partial Disapproval, and Federal Implementation Plan Regarding Texas Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program"

• "Limitation of Approval of Prevention of Significant Deterioration Provisions Concerning Greenhouse Gas Emitting-Sources in State Implementation Plans"

• "Determinations Concerning Need for Error Correction, Partial Approval and Partial Disapproval, and Federal Implementation Plan Regarding Texas Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program; Proposed Rule"

• Any other federal action under such Act occurring before this Act's enactment that applies a stationary source permitting requirement or an emissions standard for a GHG to address climate change

It passed 255-172 with 19 corrupt, conservative Democrats, mostly the remnants of the decimated Blue Dog Caucus, joining the Republicans. Several of them represent counties with some of the most unhealthful air. In fact among the Members of Congress representing districts with woefully unhealthful air quality 33 voted for the legislation, in effect voting to condemn their own constituents to elevated risks of lung cancer and other deadly, preventable diseases:

Ken Calvert (R-CA)
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)
Dan Lungren (R-CA)
Tom McClintock (R-CA)
Dean Heller (R-NV)
Mary Bono Mack (R-CA)
Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Darrell Issa (R-CA)
John Campbell (R-CA)
Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
Gary Miller (R-CA)
Sue Myrick (R-NC)
Mick Mulvaney (R-SC)
Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA)
Tim Murphy (R-PA)
Mark Critz (D-PA)
Mike Kelly (R-PA)
Ron Paul (R-TX)
Pete Olson (R-TX)
John Culberson (R-TX)
Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
Jason Chaffetz (R-UT)
Rob Bishop (R-UT)
Mike Simpson (R-ID)
Spencer Bachus (R-AL)
Trent Franks (R-AZ)
Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
Dave Schweikert (R-AZ)
Ben Quayle (R-AZ)
Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
Steve Chabot (R-OH)
Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
Geoff Davis (R-KY)