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Letter to the Editor
Friday September 6
CDC Study Finds Clean Air Act Improved Air Quality
Dr. Joshua Mott, Ph.D., of the Air Pollution Respiratory Health branch of the Federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC), recently concluded a study that finds the 1970 Clean Air Act aided in preventing approximately 11,700 deaths from carbon monoxide emitted by motor vehicles.The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Mott used data collected from 1968 to 1998 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Census Bureau and the CDC.
He found between 1968 and 1978 the number of carbon monoxide- related deaths were unchanged, but declined nearly 80 percent over the next 20 years. Mott linked the decline to the Clean Air Act.
The requirement of lower emissions from motor vehicles and the installation in 1975 of catalytic converters in new American manufactured vehicles, assisted in the decline of the deaths, Mott said.
"More than 70 percent of carbon monoxide-related deaths that occurred during the study were motor vehicle related," Mott said. Mortality from carbon monoxide declined from 20.2 deaths per million persons per year to 8.8 deaths per year between 1968-1998.
According to the study, the concurrent decline in motor vehicle-related emissions and poisoning deaths that only occurred following the first national intervention to reduce carbon monoxide in automobile exhaust appears unlikely to be coincidental. The decline in death rates appears to be a public health benefit associated with the enforcement of standards set by the 1970 Clean Air Act.
"This study is a testament for the value of emissions inspection and maintenance programs," said Bob Redding, the Automotive Service Association's Washington, D.C., representative. "With this scientific, unbiased support, inspection and maintenance (I/M) programs should be geographically broadened as soon as practical in order to continue the increasing health benefits of these programs. Vehicle I/M improves the quality of life for Americans as well as saves lives."
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