Associated Press
The air in hundreds of U.S. counties is simply too dirty to breathe, the U.S. government said Wednesday, ordering a multibillion-U.S.-dollar expansion of efforts to clean up smog in cities and towns nationwide.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was tightening the amount of ozone—a main ingredient of smog—that will be allowed in the air.
But the lower standard still falls short of what most health experts say is needed to significantly reduce heart and asthma attacks from breathing smog-clogged air.
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson called the new limits "the most stringent standards ever," and he said they will require 345 counties—out of more than 700 that are monitored—to make air quality improvements because they now have dirtier air than is healthy to breathe.
Johnson said that state and local officials have considerable time to meet the requirements—as many as 20 years, in some cases.
Around the Country
About 85 counties still fall short of the old standard enacted a decade ago.
Some of those chronic polluters are far above the old limit—Los Angeles County and a large swatch of southern California, for example, and a long stretch from Washington up to New England on the East Coast.
Some areas that would be newly included under the stricter standard include Indianapolis, Indiana, and Cleveland Ohio's Cuyahoga County in the Midwest; Mobile, Alabama, and Jacksonville, Florida, in the South; and El Paso, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, out West.
All of Florida and Oklahoma currently comply with the smog standard. Nine counties in each state are unable to meet the tougher requirement.
Not Far Enough?
Johnson's decision was met with sharp criticism from health experts and some members of Congress accused the EPA chief of ignoring the science.
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