PennFuture Claims New EPA Report Fails to Warn that Diesel Exhaust Poses Greatest Air Toxics Risk: U.S. Has Eight Times Greater Cancer Risk from Diesel than the Risk from the 133 Air Toxics Reported in EPA's National Air Toxics Assessment.

CARLISLE, Pa. -- Pennsylvania Eighth Dirtiest State for Lethal Diesel Pollution

Clean Air Task Force (CATF), Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture) and the Clean Air Board of Central Pennsylvania called on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to "tell us the whole truth," in response to EPA's release of its National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) today, estimating that people in the U.S., as a whole, are exposed to a risk from 133 toxic air pollutants that is 42 times the one-in-a-million risk of cancer that EPA considers safe. However, EPA declined to estimate the risk of exposure to diesel exhaust despite their conclusion that "diesel exhaust is among the substances that the national-scale assessment suggests poses the greatest relative risk."

CATF found the nationwide average lifetime cancer risk posed by diesel exhaust to be 365 times greater than EPA's "acceptable" level of one cancer in a million and over eight times higher than the risk of the 133 air toxics tracked by EPA combined. CATF quantified national risk from exposure to diesel exhaust using EPA's NATA diesel exhaust concentrations combined with a cancer risk factor developed by the California Air Resources Board.

Clean Air Task Force senior scientist, Bruce Hill, said: "Today's data from EPA shows that diesel exhaust poses a greater risk of cancer than all the other air toxics EPA tracks combined, yet nearly all 13 million diesel engines in use in the U.S. lack emissions controls. The single most important step in reducing cancer risk from air toxics is to reduce diesel exhaust, and today's retrofit technologies can reduce particulate matter exhaust from many diesel engines by 90 percent," he added.

"The data in this report is grim enough, but the information EPA withheld on diesel exhaust is even more alarming," said Heather Sage, director of outreach for PennFuture. "Pennsylvania is the eighth dirtiest state for lethal diesel pollution. We need to take action now to protect our health and lives.

"Diesel exhaust poses a greater cancer risk than all the other air toxics emitted in Pennsylvania combined, with 456 Pennsylvanians per million getting cancer from diesel pollution," she continued. "Congress should act this year to fully fund the 'Diesel Emissions Reductions Act' so that we can begin now to clean up America's -- and the Commonwealth's -- dirty diesels. At the state level, we are calling for regulations to limit unnecessary idling from diesel vehicles, especially trucks, and for the state to require clean or retrofitted diesel engines for all state-contracted work, as well as other actions."

In the Commonwealth, Carlisle lies in the crosshairs for diesel pollution, with truck and car exhaust overwhelming the area due to two major interstates and numerous truck depots converging. Reverend Jennifer McKenna, president of the Clean Air Board of Central Pennsylvania (CAB), said: "Everyone's health in and around Carlisle is at risk. We have a severe problem from the thousands of trucks passing through our area every day. Adopting measures to clean up diesel engines in Central Pennsylvania is necessary to safeguard our health. As a minister, I find not adopting the measures appalling. Our elected officials should take action immediately to clean up diesel engine emissions in Cumberland County, an area that unfortunately is ranked the ninth worse for fine particle pollution nationwide."

CATF has quantified county, city (Metropolitan Statistical Area), and state-specific risks from exposure to diesel soot and compared this local diesel risk to the combined risk from the 133 air toxics tracked by EPA. To find the comparative cancer risk posed by diesel in your county, metropolitan statistical area and state, please see: http://www.catf.us/projects/diesel/dieselhealth/ and enter your zip code or click on a state.

Diesel exhaust poses other risks in addition to cancer, such as cardiovascular mortality. In 2005, Clean Air Task Force estimated that in the United States 21,000 premature deaths were attributable each year to exposure to diesel particulate matter exhaust. (Please see http://www.catf.us/publications/view/83 for the report, and http://www.catf.us/projects/diesel/dieselhealth/ for estimates of local health impacts.)

In addition to cancer, diesel pollution causes Pennsylvania adults to suffer 1,170 premature deaths, 1,660 non-fatal heart attacks, 19,021 asthma attacks, 575 chronic bronchitis diagnoses, 110,404 lost work days and 643,926 days when they must restrict activity. And it isn't just adults who suffer -- diesel pollution causes kids in Pennsylvania to visit hospital emergency rooms 573 times each year for asthma attacks, 1,398 acute bronchitis episodes and needed treatment for 16,161 lower respiratory symptoms and 12,979 upper respiratory symptoms.

--Founded in 1996, the Clean Air Task Force (CATF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring clean air and healthy environments through scientific research, public education, and legal advocacy.

--PennFuture is a statewide public interest organization that works to protect and promote Pennsylvania's environment and economy.

--Clean Air Board of Central Pennsylvania is a volunteer organization working toward meaningful air pollution reduction in Central Pennsylvania.

Editors and Reporters Note:

A telephone press conference on the EPA report and diesel in Pennsylvania will be held on Thursday, February 23, 2006 at 11 AM.

To join the call at 11 AM, dial 1-800-930-9525, passcode 608426#.