LegAlert #97-11

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Next message: Megan Mullin: "Lobby Day"
• Previous message: Megan Mullin: "LegAlert #97-10"

******************************************************
ARB Considers Listing Diesel Exhaust as a
Toxic Air Contaminant
******************************************************

After spending eight years evaluating the health effects of exposure
to diesel exhaust, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) and
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) have
released a report recommending the listing of diesel exhaust as a
toxic air contaminant (TAC). If the ARB accepts the proposal, the
State will conduct a risk management process to identify and
implement the controls necessary to protect the public from this
serious threat to health and the environment.

Under state law, the ARB is required to identify a substance as a
TAC if the substance is "an air pollutant which may cause or
contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious
illness, or which may pose a present or potential hazard to human
health." Due to both its carcinogenic potential and its non-
carcinogenic respiratory effects, diesel exhaust clearly qualifies as a
TAC. It is vital that the ARB now move quickly forward with
listing diesel exhaust so that it can then find ways to reduce
exposure.

Diesel exhaust is a toxic soup that contains at least sixteen different
carcinogens. Numerous studies on mice and rats have indicated
that exposure through inhalation causes cancer. Furthermore,
epidemiological studies on occupationally exposed workers have
revealed a strong causal association between diesel exhaust
exposure and lung cancer. The report estimates the range of cancer
risks associated with diesel exhaust to be 22 to 4,400 potential
excess cancers among every million persons. Environmentalists
consider even one in a million to be a significant health threat.

Not only does diesel exhaust have carcinogenic health effects, but it
also has noncancer pulmonary effects. Diesel exhaust is a major
contributor to particulate pollution, which U.S. EPA estimates
causes the premature death of 35,000 people each year. The wealth
of evidence behind the EPA's new standard for fine particulates
demonstrates the serious health consequences for everyone, but
especially for sensitive populations, such as children, the elderly,
and those with heart and lung disease.

The ARB/OEHHA report may even underestimate risk. It does not
take into account exposure to spikes in diesel exhaust, though we
know that short-term exposures to high concentrations of
particulate matter are dangerous. It also does not adequately
address the increased risk to sensitive populations or combined
effects of simultaneous exposure to diesel exhaust and other
carcinogens.

The evidence is clear that diesel exhaust poses a hazard to human
health. Since ARB and OEHHA have been evaluating diesel
exhaust since 1989, listing as a TAC is now long overdue. It is
vital that ARB moves quickly to approve the listing and to develop
control measures which will reduce the health and environmental
impacts of diesel exhaust.

STATUS: ARB and OEHHA released their report in May for
public comment and for Scientific Review Panel (SRP) review. All
comments received by August 8 will be forwarded to the SRP, and
ARB plans to meet with the SRP in fall to discuss the report.

ACTION NEEDED: Write to the Air Resources Board and urge
the board to accept its staff's recommendation to list diesel exhaust
as a toxic air contaminant. Tell them that state and federal agencies
have identified more than sufficient evidence to support the listing,
and that diesel exhaust presents an urgent public health risk that
must be quickly addressed. Express your frustration that the risk
evaluation has taken so long, and urge ARB to act quickly in the
scientific review process so that control measures can begin to be
developed.

Please submit TWO copies of your comments by August 8 to:

Genevieve Shiroma
Chief, Air Quality Measures Branch
California Air Resources Board
Attention: Diesel Exhaust ID
PO Box 2815
Sacramento, CA 95812

----------------------------------------------------------------------
To get off the CALIF-ALERTS list, send email to LISTSERV@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG
Make the message text (not the Subject): SIGNOFF CALIF-ALERTS

• Next message: Megan Mullin: "Lobby Day"
• Previous message: Megan Mullin: "LegAlert #97-10"

Back to Sierra Club California Alerts page

Back to Sierra Club home page.

Sierra Club, 85 Second St., Second Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105-3441, USA. Telephone (415) 977-5500 (voice), (415) 977-5799 (FAX). Sierra Club® is a registered trademark of the Sierra Club.