"EPA air quality specialists are again discounting the need for tighter daily limits on soot exposure — a rebuff to the majority findings of an agency advisory committee in the high-profile regulatory review.
The EPA staffers’ stance — which could carry implications for industry — could also find its way into EPA’s upcoming draft rule for soot standards, which agency Administrator Michael Regan aims to finalize next year.
Assuming that EPA eventually cuts the annual exposure threshold, “the evidence does not support the need for additional protection against short-term exposures to peak PM2.5 concentrations,” those career staffers wrote in a final assessment posted online today and using a technical term for soot. While a “different policy approach” could justify a lower daily limit, that would likely have “a more variable impact on public health than lowering the level of the annual standard,” they continued."
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