EPA cracking down on ground levels.

• Position: Ozone - Environmental Protection Agency - Brief article

Strict standards on ground-level ozone proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency comply with health-based recommendations from scientists, points out Philip S. Stevens, an environmental chemist and professor in the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Bloomington. However, complying with the standards will require states once again to step up their controls on emissions.

"This new standard is in line with the unanimous recommendation from the EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee Ozone Review Panel," Stevens acknowledges. "In a 2006 report, this panel recommended a standard between 0.060 and 0.070 ppm [parts per million] averaged over eight hours based on new evidence showing adverse health effects of ozone at concentrations lower than the 0.08 ppm standard set in 1997. CASAC criticized the 2008 recommendation of the Bush Administration of a .075 ppm eight-hour standard as failing to provide an adequate margin of safety to all individuals. The new standard will provide this margin of safety as required by the Clean Air...