WVU in the News: 'I had hoped for more': Air quality advocates call on EPA to revisit air quality standard proposal that looms large in WV

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recently released plans to update — and not update — its air quality standards for particulate matter (PM) which studies have linked to heart attacks, aggravated asthma and premature deaths. 

“I think they’re not protecting the public,” said Michael McCawley, a clinical associate professor with the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences at the West Virginia University School of Public Health.

McCawley said he believes the consequences for getting air quality standards wrong could be especially great in West Virginia, where studies have found substantially higher mortality and cancer rates around mountaintop mining areas versus non-mountaintop mining areas.

“This is probably going to come down hardest, first of all, on the people of West Virginia,” McCawley said of the EPA’s proposed renewal of its indicators for PM.

Read the full story from the Dominion Post or by downloading a PDF of the article.