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The Bush administration is continuing to work with polluters on one of the broadest efforts to weaken our clean air protections in the history of the Clean Air Act. In October, Congress is expected to make a number of crucial decisions on clean air, including whether to allow a Bush administration practice known as the "Senior Death Discount."
The White House is trying to downplay the health impacts of proposed environmental rules by underestimating the value of a human life, and counting the lives of senior citizens for even less. For example, the Bush administration had devalued saving the life of someone over 65 by 37 percent compared to younger people, helping to mask the health impacts of various pieces of clean air legislation. These "death discounts" should not be used to derail public health proposals.
Please take a moment to ask your senators to support an amendment proposed by Senator Durbin (IL) that will stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's current use of the "Senior Death Discount." By passing the Durbin Amendment, Congress will stop the EPA from discriminating against seniors when it weighs the value of environmental and public health protections. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web browser: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=31&id4=OHFreep
Right now America's senior citizens are at risk from adverse health impacts from pollution, including premature deaths due to power plant pollution. Fine particle "soot" and ground-level ozone, or "smog," are air contaminants that attack the cardiopulmonary system, reducing lung and heart function for even the most robust Americans. But for senior citizens, the effects of breathing air contaminated with soot and smog can be deadly. In fact, each of the four most frequent causes of death in people aged 65 and over - heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - are worsened by air pollution.
Given this, the Environmental Protection Agency should be designing its health protections so that they protect and extend senior citizens' lives.
But, incredibly, the Bush administration is instead devaluing the lives of senior citizens as a justification for weakening our nation's clean air policies.
The Bush administration and EPA back air-pollution legislation and proposals that will worsen senior citizens' health, including the so-called Clear Skies Initiative, which would allow polluters to emit more smog- and soot-forming pollution and more mercury over a longer period of time than faithful enforcement of current law.
In part, the White House justifies doing less to protect public health from air pollution by lowering the estimated value of a human life, and lowering even further the estimated value of the life of a senior citizen. Since senior citizens, along with children, benefit the most from reduced pollution, EPA is exploiting these calculations to reduce the economic benefit of environmental safeguards to justify weakening them.
Although former EPA Administrator Whitman said that the EPA would stop using one Senior Death discount in its calculations, the EPA continues to devalue the lives of senior citizens, and now the Office of Management and Budget has indicated that it favors continuing such approaches.
Fortunately, Senator Durbin (IL) has introduced an amendment that would prevent the offensive practice of applying any senior death discount to older Americans.
Please take a moment to ask your senators to support the Durbin Amendment and stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from using the Senior Death Discount. By passing the Durbin Amendment, Congress will stop the EPA from discriminating against seniors when it weighs the value of environmental and public health protections. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web browser: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=31&id4=OHFreep
Sincerely,
Erin Bowser
The White House is trying to downplay the health impacts of proposed environmental rules by underestimating the value of a human life, and counting the lives of senior citizens for even less. For example, the Bush administration had devalued saving the life of someone over 65 by 37 percent compared to younger people, helping to mask the health impacts of various pieces of clean air legislation. These "death discounts" should not be used to derail public health proposals.
Please take a moment to ask your senators to support an amendment proposed by Senator Durbin (IL) that will stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's current use of the "Senior Death Discount." By passing the Durbin Amendment, Congress will stop the EPA from discriminating against seniors when it weighs the value of environmental and public health protections. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web browser: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=31&id4=OHFreep
Right now America's senior citizens are at risk from adverse health impacts from pollution, including premature deaths due to power plant pollution. Fine particle "soot" and ground-level ozone, or "smog," are air contaminants that attack the cardiopulmonary system, reducing lung and heart function for even the most robust Americans. But for senior citizens, the effects of breathing air contaminated with soot and smog can be deadly. In fact, each of the four most frequent causes of death in people aged 65 and over - heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - are worsened by air pollution.
Given this, the Environmental Protection Agency should be designing its health protections so that they protect and extend senior citizens' lives.
But, incredibly, the Bush administration is instead devaluing the lives of senior citizens as a justification for weakening our nation's clean air policies.
The Bush administration and EPA back air-pollution legislation and proposals that will worsen senior citizens' health, including the so-called Clear Skies Initiative, which would allow polluters to emit more smog- and soot-forming pollution and more mercury over a longer period of time than faithful enforcement of current law.
In part, the White House justifies doing less to protect public health from air pollution by lowering the estimated value of a human life, and lowering even further the estimated value of the life of a senior citizen. Since senior citizens, along with children, benefit the most from reduced pollution, EPA is exploiting these calculations to reduce the economic benefit of environmental safeguards to justify weakening them.
Although former EPA Administrator Whitman said that the EPA would stop using one Senior Death discount in its calculations, the EPA continues to devalue the lives of senior citizens, and now the Office of Management and Budget has indicated that it favors continuing such approaches.
Fortunately, Senator Durbin (IL) has introduced an amendment that would prevent the offensive practice of applying any senior death discount to older Americans.
Please take a moment to ask your senators to support the Durbin Amendment and stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from using the Senior Death Discount. By passing the Durbin Amendment, Congress will stop the EPA from discriminating against seniors when it weighs the value of environmental and public health protections. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web browser: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=31&id4=OHFreep
Sincerely,
Erin Bowser