The EPA has been the constant subject of controversy. For example, the EPA originally claimed these regulations would save 40,000 American lives. Then it dropped that number in half to 20,000. Then it cut it again to 15,000 after it was revealed that the EPA study contained an embarrassing mathematical error. Finally, Dr. Kay Jones, former EPA technical advisor and senior air quality advisor to President Carter, found that only a tiny fraction of the EPA's claimed number, fewer than 1,000 lives, would be affected by the regulations.
Every life is beyond value.
But the astounding irony is that this new regulation will ultimately take even more lives than it protects. Professor Ralph Keeney of the University of Southern California reports in RPPI's peer-reviewed study that the proposed standards could literally cause more deaths than they prevent. A decade of research has demonstrated that lowering average American incomes would raise the susceptibility of people to injury, disease and death. Since the EPA's new rules would significantly lower Americans' incomes and reduce standards of living, it would actually result in higher death rates. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the most common respiratory ailments, asthma, is caused not by ozone or particulate matter but instead by poor indoor air quality.