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 ew research confirms a controversial finding that
linked soot par- ticles to premature death and increased hospitalizations,
the American Lung Association noted today. The Lung Association
said the new research gives substantial additional scientific
backing to a 1997 decision by the Environmental Protection Agency
to set tougher clean-air standards for soot particles. The Lung
Association said the research underscores the need for EPA to
clean up sources of fine particle soot, including diesel trucks,
other big diesel engines, diesel fuel and coal-fired power plants.
 "This
research vindicates EPA," said Ernest P. Franck, President
of the Lung Association. "It should silence the big polluters
and other critics who have asserted falsely that EPA relied on
'junk science' to set the health standards."
The standards
in question have been set aside by a federal appeals court panel
for reasons unrelated to the science. The Justice Department
and the American Lung Association are appealing the case to the
US Supreme Court.
The new research
was unveiled last month at a conference in Atlanta sponsored
by the Health Effects Institute (HEI), a nonprofit research center
funded jointly by industry and the EPA. In one study, researchers
reanalyzed and validated two earlier, key studies done by the
Harvard School of Public Health and used by the EPA to support
the particle soot standards. Both the 1993 "Six Cities Study"
and the 1995 "American Cancer Society Study" found
a link between particle soot and premature death. As particle
pollution increased, so did deaths.
Big polluting
industries and their supporters have attacked the original studies
because the researchers declined to turn confidential health
information and other raw data over to industry lawyers. Under
a compromise negotiated by EPA, the material was given to the
HEI to review.
HEI also released
another new study that found increases in premature death and
hospitalizations linked to higher levels of soot particles. This
research, led by investigators from John Hopkins University's
School of Hygiene and Public Health, examined the pollution impacts
in the 90 largest American cities.
Another analysis
in fourteen cities found increasing hospitalizations for cardiovascular
and lung diseases linked to higher levels of particle pollution.
The researchers concluded: "These complementary analyses
of mortality and morbidity provide new and strong evidence linking
particulate air pollution at current levels to adverse health
effects," according to an abstract of their study.
"The
Health Effects Institute's independent researchers have concluded
that fine particulate matter does pose a public health threat
and that's what EPA concluded," said Franck.
"This
research is the most sophisticated of its kind," said the
Lung Association's Franck. "Collectively, the implications
of these studies are inescapable," he said. "EPA did
use sound science in setting the national air quality standards.
Now the agency must move ahead with controls on the biggest sources
of fine particle soot, including diesel trucks and fuel, other
large diesel engines and coal-fired power plants." 
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