An Environmental Protection Agency report released Tuesday shows concentrations of fine-particle pollution have declined in most of the country in the last five years

, especially in Southern California and the Southeast.
According to the Associated Press, fine-particle pollution in 2003 dropped 10 percent from 1999, and reached the lowest recorded levels since monitoring began nationwide in that year. Southern California, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, which have been monitored since around 1980, had the lowest levels in more than two decades.
“Today’s EPA report provides further evidence that our nation’s air quality continues to take giant leaps forward, and that progress made in clean diesel technology has played a significant role in this improvement,” said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum.
“While these are impressive accomplishments in reducing particle emissions, the diesel industry is not standing still. In addition to attacking the challenge of still lower emissions for new engines starting in 2007, the industry is also working to reduce emissions from existing diesel engines by working side-by-side with EPA, states and other stakeholders to advocate for funding and implementation of voluntary diesel retrofit programs as a cost-effective way to help meet clean air standards,” Schaeffer said.
The EPA report is available at www.epa.gov/airtrends.