Must-read recap: The New Lede's top stories

Updated clean air standards for heavy-duty vehicles, a study finds Antarctic conservation strategies insufficient, and 3M announces it will stop making PFAS.

Updated clean air standards to cut smog-forming truck emissions

This week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated its clean air standards for heavy-duty vehicles for the first time in more than 20 years.

The updated standards, which will go into effect in 2027, are designed to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from the tailpipes of large trucks. NOx reacts with other compounds in the air to form ozone pollution, contributing to more than 60,000 deaths in the US each year. The new standards are about 80% stronger than those they replace.

The December 20 announcement came the same day the US Postal Service revealed a five-year plan to transition towards using electric delivery vehicles.

The EPA estimates that by 2045, the updated clean air standards will result in up to 2,900 fewer premature deaths, 6,700 fewer hospital and emergency room visits, and 18,000 fewer cases of childhood asthma each year.

“EPA is taking significant action to protect public health, especially the health of 72 million people living near truck freight routes in America, including our most vulnerable populations in historically overburdened communities,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan in a press release on Tuesday.

The rule will also require emissions warranties that are 2.8 to 4.5 longer than those currently in place, meaning trucks will need to meet emissions standards for a greater period of time as they age. Additionally, companies will be required to test trucks and send data to the EPA annually, and the EPA will pull trucks from the road and test them to see if they meet the standards.

“We know in the past companies were meeting the standards when they were certifying the new trucks in the laboratory, but when the trucks were in real-world conditions, they were emitting more pollution,” said Margo Oge, former director of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality. “Twenty years ago, we attempted to fix that, but this rule is significantly better to ensure that we are going to get the public health benefits.” (Read the rest of the story.)

Antarctic conservation strategies are “insufficient” to protect the bulk of species, study says

Current conservation efforts under the provisions of a major international treaty to protect the Antarctic are “insufficient” to halt population declines of most Antarctic life, according to a new study. However, scientists note that there are low-cost strategies that could more effectively protect the continent.

The study, which was published today in the journal PLOS Biology, found that unless more intensive conservation efforts are undertaken by the global community, population declines will continue for approximately 65% of terrestrial species and seabirds that call Antarctica home. Despite protections from the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, which has been in effect since 1998, emperor penguins are at particularly high risk of population decline, followed by a species of nematode worm, Adélie penguins, and other seabirds. Authors of the study write that conservation of Antarctic species is key for developing new technologies or medicines, and for protecting the continent itself, which provides “essential ecosystem services” like regulating the global climate.

“Antarctica is not safe from global threats. It’s not as safe as we thought it was. And we need global action to help save it,” said Jasmine Lee, a research fellow at the British Antarctic Survey and the lead author on the paper.

The study is the result of a workshop, held in 2017, that brought 29 scientists including Lee together to discuss and analyze Antarctic conservation strategies. The findings were published days after the close of COP15, when nearly 200 nations agreed to a set of goals for conserving biodiversity after two weeks of negotiations in Montreal.

The authors of the study recommended a combination of cost-effective strategies that would ultimately help protect Antarctic species from the many threats facing the continent, including pollution, climate change, invasive species, and infrastructure built by humans.

The top cost-effective strategies identified by the researchers included minimizing the impacts of human activity, preventing, reducing, and minimizing the impacts of new infrastructure, and reducing levels of transport to the continent. Since much of the human activity in Antarctica is a result of scientific research, implementing these strategies could mean that scientists would need to figure out ways to conduct research remotely, by using drones or other technology to reduce disturbances to wildlife.

Researchers estimated the recommended strategies would cost $23 million; a cost Lee described as “remarkably cheap” compared to other conservation efforts across the globe. “These might be easy conservation wins,” she said. (Read the rest of the story.)

3M sees “writing on the wall,” says it will stop making PFAS

The company 3M, which makes over 60,000 products, said Tuesday it will stop manufacturing toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” and work to discontinue use of PFAS in its products by the end of 2025.

The announcement comes amid a wave of lawsuits against the company and other manufacturers, alleging the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in their products have endangered human health and the environment. Meanwhile, more and more states are banning PFAS in a range of consumer goods, with California recently restricting the chemicals in clothing and cosmetics.

More than 20 years ago, 3M committed to phasing out two PFAS chemicals, PFOA and PFOS. But since then the company has manufactured various other PFAS, which belong to a class of thousands of chemicals.

“We know that 3M has known for decades that PFAS were harmful, said Lydia Jahl, a science and policy associate at the Green Science Policy Institute. “The writing was already on the wall and they’re just responding to that. I think they’re seeing that it’s expensive to produce PFAS because of all these lawsuits.”

Scientists have found that PFAS exposure is linked to a range of health problems, including heightened risk for cancer, birth defects, and liver disease. Part of the chemicals’ danger is also how slowly they degrade and how they accumulate in the body over time. Today, PFAS are present in the blood of an estimated 97% of Americans and have been found in many drinking water systems across the country.

Even as it announced its intention to phase out PFAS in a press release, and despite abundant scientific evidence about the chemicals’ health risks, 3M claimed the chemicals are both safe and necessary. (Read the rest of the story.)

NOTE TO READERS: During this holiday season, we hope you’ll consider gifting The New Lede with a financial donation to help us bring you more timely news impacting our health and the health of our environment. We also welcome story tips!