EPA Science Panel Considering Guidelines That Upend Basic Air Pollution Science
Some panel members said they don't agree that breathing sooty air can cause premature death. The panel's draft recommendations to the EPA would change how it assesses the dangers of air pollution.
Several members of a powerful science panel for the Environmental Protection Agency expressed doubt at a hearing Thursday about the long-established scientific consensus that air pollution can cause premature death.
The panel was meeting to consider recommendations that would fundamentally change how the agency analyzes the public health dangers posed by air pollution, and could lead to weaker regulation of soot.
The recommendations concern how the EPA regulates microscopic soot known as particulate matter, which causes and exacerbates respiratory diseases such as asthma. Determining
