E.P.A. Sets Lower Limit For Soot Particles in the Air

[alp227]

Source: NYT

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new standard for soot pollution on Friday that will force industry, utilities and local governments to find ways to reduce emissions of particles that are linked to thousands of cases of disease and death each year.

The agency, acting under a court deadline, set an annual standard of 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air, a significant tightening from the previous standard of 15 micrograms, set in 1997, which a federal court found too weak to adequately protect public health. The new standard is in the middle of the range of 11 to 13 micrograms per cubic meter that the E.P.A.’s science advisory panel recommended.

Communities must meet the new standard by 2020 or face possible penalties, including loss of federal transportation financing.

The E.P.A. based its action on health studies that found that exposure to fine particles — in this case measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter — brought a marked increase in heart and lung disease, acute asthma attacks and early death. Older people, adults with heart and lung conditions and children are particularly susceptible to the ill effects of breathing in soot particles.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/science/earth/epa-proposes-tighter-soot-rule.html

[caraher]

1. I had a REALLY hard time making sense of that headline

I initially read "lower limit" as meaning the EPA requires there be at least some minimum amount of soot!

[eppur_se_muova]

3. You are not alone. "Upper limit" would have made much more sense. nt

[CreekDog]

4. bad wording from NYT, should've been: "reduced the level of allowable pollution..."

...from soot particles, or fine particles in the air."

or something to that effect.

but going from 15 down to 12 is a good thing.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Or "EPA lowers limit".

I guess they don't realize how the terms "lower bound" or "lower limit" are normally used in science-speak. Words that can be either verbs or adjectives must be used circumspectly in headlines, as should those that can be either verbs or nouns.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Kick & Recommend.