US counties fail air standards

Leavitt called the need to reduce airborne microscopic soot -- particles in some cases 28 times smaller than the width of a human hair -- "the single most important action we can take to make our air healthier."

He said soot-filled air annually causes 15,000 premature deaths, 95,000 cases of chronic or acute bronchitis, and thousands of hospital admissions because of respiratory or cardiovascular illnesses.

The entire state of Massachusetts -- and most of New England -- met the federal standard and will not be required to develop any new plans to control fine particles, according to the EPA.

In New England, only Connecticut had counties that exceeded the standards. New England is also expected to see benefits as upwind states take steps to reduce their fine particle levels. Some of the same pollutants that create the fine particles also contribute to acid rain, ground-level ozone, and regional haze.

"We can be proud that air quality in most of New England attains the health-based standard for fine-particle pollution," Robert W. Varney, regional administrator of the EPA's New England office, said in a statement. "However, we need to ensure that standards continue to be attained and that, especially in urban areas, we continue efforts to reduce the amount of fine particles in the air that people breathe."

The EPA in 1997 issued tougher standards for soot, for the first time regulating particles as small as 2.5 microns. But because of lengthy litigation finally resolved in 2002, the agency has yet to implement the requirements or even officially designate what areas violate the standard.

The designations made public yesterday were characterized as the initial agency step to putting states on notice as to which ones likely will have to submit additional pollution control plans.

Leavitt said federal requirements being phased in to reduce sulfur in gasoline and diesel fuel; requirements for cleaner trucks; and programs aimed at curbing interstate transfer of pollution from power plants will go a long way toward meeting the soot air standards.