This week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced stricter ozone limits. For years mounting evidence has illustrated the serious health risks associated with smog exposure.

The changes will bear significant costs and phased in over decades. But the return in lives and lower health care costs makes the EPA proposal both warranted and reasonable.

Setting the strictest standard to date, the plan outlines the reduction for chemicals emitted by cars, power plants, industrial facilities and others that produce ground-level ozone, the main ingredient of smog. The new rule would lower the ozone limit to between 60 and 70 parts per billion.

The new standard could reduce premature deaths from heart and lung disease, and spare untold numbers from suffering aggravated asthma and other respiratory problems requiring emergency hospitalization.

Texans would particularly benefit. Hot weather and sunlight cause ozone to concentrate at harmful levels. Reducing smog will make communities healthier, reduce the number of lost workdays from sickness and curb health care spending.

Business groups not siding with the environmentalists say the tougher limits could lead to job losses and needless price increases as industries prepare to clean up their act - concerns that are speculative at best.

While the cost of complying could range between $19 billion and $90 billion, EPA estimates the nation will save up to $100 billion in preventable hospital costs and lost workdays.

Additionally, the plan would phase in over time. States would have until 2013 to plan for controlling smog and up to 2031 to actually bring smog under control - Allowing time for environmental gains under new fuel economy standards and greenhouse gas emissions cuts to take hold.

True, the tougher standards will force changes across the nation. But this moves the nation's environmental health in the right direction. The measure gives states and industries time to curb pollution in many ways, from containing urban sprawl and expanding mass transit to diversifying the nation's energy supply.

“(The) EPA is stepping up to protect Americans from one of the most persistent and widespread pollutants we face,” agency administrator Lisa Jackson said. “Using the best science to strengthen these standards is a long overdue action that will help millions of Americans breathe easier and live healthier lives.”

Administering clean air standards grantees industry the regulatory certainty for charting a cleaner future while putting science back in its rightful place as a driver of public health policy.



Armand Nardi is the publisher of the Gainesville Daily Register. He can be contacted at: anardi@ntin.net.