Stringent Annual and Daily Standards Are Needed to Provide Uniform Protection Across the U.S.
An analysis of air quality monitoring data found that 78 percent of the U.S. population could be protected if EPA lowers both the daily and annual average air quality standards for fine particles.
This level of protection would be achieved if the daily standard were lowered from 65 µg/m3 to 30 µg/m3, in conjunction with a lowering of the annual average standard of 15 µg/m3 to a level of 12 µg/m3. The analysis found that the 30/12 µg/m3 suite of standards provides nearly equivalent 24-hour and annual control of PM2.5 distributions across the U.S., thus ensuring a more uniform and consistent level of protection than achieved by lowering only the daily standard.
Johnson PRS, Graham JJ. Analysis of Primary Fine Particle National Ambient Air Quality Standard Metrics. JAWMA. In press.
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