The Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Board of Directors voted on July 21 to further reduce particulate matter emissions from petroleum refineries with a yes vote for Regulation 6, Rule 5: Particulate Emissions from Refinery Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Units.

The rule is now the most health-protective and stringent regulation of its kind in the country. It is a huge environmental justice win! A million mostly people of color who live near the East Bay refineries have for years disproportionately suffered from respiratory, circulatory and heart disorders, cancer, asthma, and early death.

“I know that in all my years of practice, what I have done has saved lives,” 35-year medical oncologist Dr. Janice Kirsch [SF Bay Board Member] told the board. “But what you can do today will save more lives from cancer than two or three of my careers.” Reuters

THANK YOU to everyone who helped organize, wrote emails, gave testimony at the hearings, and more!

CONGRATS to Communities for a Better Environment, Sunflower Alliance, 350 Bay Area and more that have been leading this struggle for many years.

BRAVO to Dr. Amanda Millstein of Climate Health Now for organizing health professionals and community press conferences, and to SF Bay PSR Board Members Drs. Janice Kirsch, Tom Newman, Jeff Ritterman, Marjaneh Moini, and Bob Gould, and to all other SF Bay PSR members who pitched in!