PSR chapters on both coasts testified before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently, calling for stricter national air quality standards on toxic particulate matter air pollution.

“Coal pollutants contribute to four of the five leading causes of mortality in the United States: heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic respiratory diseases,” said Catherine Thomasson, MD, executive director of PSR. “The damage they do to health is severe and widespread. It’s vital that these dirty emissions be reduced. If not, thousands of Americans will needlessly suffer illnesses and premature deaths.”

Eight PSR doctors, flying in to Washington from six states, will present the Obama Administration with a petition signed by 850 health professionals voicing their concern about the toxic dangers posed by unregulated coal ash disposal.

PSR is among the environmental and public health groups that filed a lawsuit this week to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to complete its rulemaking process and finalize public health safeguards against toxic coal ash.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) applauds the new standards announced by the Environmental Protection Agency on March 27 to limit industrial carbon pollution from new power plants.

PSR has intervened in a lawsuit to defend the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s newly proposed rule to regulate mercury and air toxics from coal-fired power plants.

PSR, acting with environmental organizations, filed a Notice of Intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require the Agency to release rules for safe disposal of coal ash, the toxic waste left when electrical utilities burn coal.

PSR chapters across the country celebrated the EPA’s recent finalization of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule. This rule is a huge victory for human health, particularly for children, who can face developmental delays and mental retardation due to mercury exposure.

PSR-Los Angeles, along with NRDC and Communities for a Better Environment, are asking a federal appeals court to review an action by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that lets a local air quality agency avoid monitoring pollutants from area freeways.

Activists from PSR and other organizations delivered more than 630,000 comments to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in Boston today to support the agency’s draft rules to significantly curb mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants.

The plaintiffs in the suit include Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, Desert Citizens Against Pollution, Communities for a Better Environment and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Today, Physicians for Social Responsibility released its report, The Clean Air Act: A Proven Tool for Healthy Air. The report provides a critical review of the health protections achieved through air pollution prevention.

The U.S. House of Representatives launched a major assault on basic anti-pollution safeguards when it passed a “Continuing Resolution” on Feb. 19.

PSR met recently with the Environmental Protection Agency to present our new report on coal ash and health and to voice support for strong, health-protective regulation of coal ash disposal. Our presentation focused on concerns that highlight the need for robust regulation at the federal level – including, in some cases, steps that go beyond the EPA’s current proposal.

PSR's Barbara Gottlieb discusses the need for coal ash regulation in this article on an EPA coal ash hearing in Kentucky.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson announced today that after several months of careful review the agency will deny 10 petitions calling for the agency to reconsider its determination that six greenhouse gases in the atmosphere threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.

A trio of House lawmakers yesterday introduced a bill to block U.S. EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases, marking the latest in a string of bipartisan attacks against forthcoming climate rules.

An article on the EPA's new ozone standard discusses PSR's recent work exposing the dangers of coal-fired power plants.

The agency's environmental and health concerns about phthalates, PBDEs and two other chemical types marks a shift in federal policy and is sparking policy changes in advance of anticipated regulations.

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed limiting the allowable amount of pollution-forming ozone in the air from 75 to between 60 and 70 parts per billion for any eight-hour period, significantly tightening rules the Bush administration had set for the nation's most widespread air pollutant.