The EPA, Hiding the Numbers (Again)

Not yet in the MFM, and not likely to be trumpeted by same:

• EPA has been conducting air pollution effects tests on human subjects since at least January 2010.
• By the time the EPA researchers had published their September 2011 report in Environmental Health Perspectives, they had conducted 41 such tests.
• Of the 41 human experiments, clinical effects were reported by the EPA in only two study subjects. Both of these are controversial. One is the case study reported in Environmental Health Perspectives, which has been previously debunked. The other study subject flagged by the EPA researchers as experiencing a clinical effect (“a short episode of an elevated heart rate during exposure”), in fact, denied feeling any effects. This reported effect was most probably due to some pre-existing condition or other stressor given the low-level of PM_2.5 to which the study subject was exposed. Certainly the EPA has no reason to believe that was not the case or that the alleged heart rate jump was due to the PM_2.5 exposure.
• The other 39 study subjects were exposed to PM_2.5 levels up to 21 times greater (i.e, up to 750 μg/m³) than the EPA’s own permissible exposure limit for PM_2.5 on a 24-hour basis (i.e, 35 μg/m³). All reported exposures among the 39 study subjects were greater than the EPA’s 24-hour PM_2.5 standard. Seven study subjects were exposed to levels 10 times greater than the EPA’s 24-hour PM_2.5 standard. No clinical effects were reported for any of these exposures.