Air Pollutants, Especially Lead, Decreased in 1985, EPA Reports

The nation’s air is gradually getting cleaner in general and very quickly is getting cleaned of lead, says an annual survey by the Environmental Protection Agency released Tuesday.

But almost half the nation’s population still lives in areas that fail to meet federal standards for the six most important pollutants, an agency official estimated.

Still, Craig Potter, assistant EPA administrator in charge of air programs, said the agency’s annual air pollution report meant a grade of “at least a B” for dealing with those six pollutants.

Thanks to EPA’s big reduction in allowable lead in gasoline, airborne concentrations of lead fell 32% from 1984 to 1985, while emissions, mostly from automobile tailpipes, dropped 48%.

The agency said 178 million people lived in areas that fail to meet one or more of the six key federal air pollution standards in 1985, down from 187 million in 1984. There is substantial double counting in those estimates, since residents of a county not meeting the standard for two pollutants are counted twice; for three pollutants, three times, and so forth.

Richard H. Rhoads of the EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards said at a news conference: “Probably slightly less than half the nation’s population is exposed to at least one pollutant above the standards.” Half would be 120 million people, but the agency has not yet eliminated the double counting to arrive at the number, he said.

For lead, 4.5 million people are exposed to concentrations above the standard, compared to 4.7 million the year before.

The EPA cut allowable concentrations of lead in gasoline by 91% in 1985 and is studying whether to order removal of the remaining 0.1 gram per gallon.