'People deserve better from the EPA': Clean air standards don't go far enough, activists say

When Hazel Chandler left Southern California in 1977, she thought moving to Arizona would give her clean air.

"I soon found out that ... was not necessarily the truth," she said.

Chandler, an Arizona field coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force, an affiliate of the Environmental Defense Fund, spoke at a rally at the Arizona state Capitol on Monday to call for stronger federal air quality standards.

Along with Chandler, representatives from the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter, Chispa Arizona, Poder Latinx and Arizona Interfaith Power & Light made up the approximately two dozen attendees of the Monday evening rally.

The rally was organized in response to changes the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to air quality standards earlier this year. Organizers said that they do not go far enough.

Chandler has lived in cities with failing air quality grades for most of her adult life. She said she has asthma, chronic inflammation and immune dysfunction, and she experiences a spike in symptoms whenever air pollution levels rise.

"I don't need an air quality alert to tell me what the levels are," she said. "I feel it."

The Phoenix metro area, where Chandler lives, ranks fifth in the country for most ozone pollution and eighth in the country for most year-round particle pollution, according to a 2022 report from the American Lung Association.

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Chandler recalled a series of days in July 2022 when air quality was unhealthy for sensitive groups, and she developed a chronic cough so bad that it led to spinal fractures. Her symptoms are especially bad during the winter, she said, because of increased wood burning and fireworks around the holidays.

"I'm not alone," Chandler said. According to American Lung Association data, across Arizona, over 132,000 children and over 560,000 adults have asthma, over 349,000 people have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and over 3,000 have lung cancer.

"Merely breathing the air should not threaten our health, our quality of life, while shortening our lives," Chandler said.

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA must issue air quality standards for certain air pollutants. States with areas that do not meet the standards must create plans for how they will, including by establishing enforceable measures to reduce air pollutant emissions, according to the EPA.

Among the air pollutants the EPA regulates is PM 2.5, which the EPA describes as tiny particles that can come from construction sites, unpaved roads, smokestacks, fires, vehicles and power plants. When inhaled, the particles can travel to the lungs and bloodstream. Exposure can worsen health conditions, such as asthma, and lead to premature death in people with lung and heart disease. The particles are especially harmful to children and older adults.

In January, the EPA proposed stricter standards for PM 2.5 pollution to reflect new research on its adverse health effects. The standards are based on yearly and daily average measurements. It's the first time that changes have been proposed in over a decade.

Rally organizers called for the agency to impose even stricter standards than the ones proposed.

The EPA is accepting public input about a range of potential limits on PM 2.5 pollution concentrations, and the rally organizers wanted people to contact the EPA to advocate for the lowest possible limits. The EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee recommended a lower limit for daily particle pollution than the one proposed.

"As a mom, I’m concerned about the environment," Mayra Hernandez said in Spanish at the rally. Hernandez, a member of Chispa Arizona, has lived in Arizona for over two decades, and her oldest son has had asthma since he was little.

"People deserve better from the EPA," Hernandez said, adding that the current standard allows industrial polluters to thrive "at the expense of the health of our communities."

During her remarks, she called attention to the fact that Hispanic children are 40% more likely to die from asthma than non-Hispanic white children, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health.

Across the country, people of color are 3.6 times more likely than white people to live in a county with a failing grade for ozone air pollution, short-term particle pollution and year-round particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association's 2022 "State of the Air" report.

Nancy Herrera, the Arizona program director for Poder Latinx, said the organization wants to raise awareness among Hispanic communities about these disparities and encourage more people to fight to reduce them.

"We simply cannot miss this opportunity to meaningfully address air pollution and act on climate justice," Chandler said at the rally.

The EPA is accepting public comments on the proposed changes to air quality standards until March 28.

Madeleine Parrish covers equity issues for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at mparrish@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @maddieparrish61.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Environmental organizations rally at the Arizona Capitol for clean air