Please join us and tell the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set much tougher limits on how much pollution can be in outdoor air.  Within the next few weeks EPA will decide how much soot, or particle pollution, is safe to have in the air we breathe. The Clean Air Act requires EPA to set these air pollution health limits, also called standards, at levels that protect public health.  The health science clearly shows that the current federal limits on particle pollution are set too high, allowing air pollution that leads to the premature deaths of thousands of Americans each year.  EPA needs to set limits that are much tougher to protect against this dangerous outdoor air pollutant.

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson must announce the agency's recommendations for new limits before the end of this year, but he is facing intense political pressure to set the limits at levels that are still too weak to protect all Americans.

Send your letter today in support for cleaner air!

Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):

Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20460

Below is the sample letter:

Subject: Please Set Tough Air Standards

Dear Stephen Johnson:

I am writing to express my concern about one of the most important decisions you will make in your role as the head of EPA: your decision to set the national standards for pollution in the air we breathe. I'm writing to urge you to set the tightest, most protective national standards on particle pollution. Thousands of lives are at stake in your decision.

Thousands of scientific studies have found that particle pollution in the air causes serious health problems, including tens of thousands of premature deaths, increased use of asthma medications, missed school days, emergency room visits, strokes, and heart problems. Millions of Americans are at risk from breathing particle pollution, including people with asthma or chronic lung diseases, children, seniors, and those with cardiovascular disease or diabetes.

EPA staff scientists and the independent scientific reviewers have recommended much lower limits in the national standards for the smallest, or fine, particles. Given the dangerous health effects, there is no reason to choose anything but the lowest levels recommended by EPA scientists for the fine particles. You should also provide even more protection than your staff has recommended for the limits on the larger, or coarse, particles to protect us from these larger, but still dangerous, particles.

Please follow the Clean Air Act and set the national standard at a level that will protect public health. That must be the only consideration. And the science is overwhelmingly clear that the current limits do not provide that protection.

For the health of my family and all Americans, I urge you to set standards that will make the air safe to breathe in all of our communities.

Sincerely,  your name here
................address, phone number

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

ALTERNATIVE APPROACH:  See the following web site.........

http://lungaction.org/campaign/epa_cleanair

[Best approach is to send your own letter (snail mail).]