TX078.12 Comment on FR Doc # 2010-05239

I'm a private citizen living in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex who is deeply disturbed by the continuing deterioration of air quality in Texas. The consequences of toxic pollution is reaching epidemic proportions in DFW, in the Ausin-San Antonio area, and the Houston area. Previously, toxic emissions from gas and diesel burning vehicles, incinerators and cement kilns, and coal-fired power plants were the main concerns. Now, a fourth major one has been added in the benzene, carbon monoxide, and other poisons being belched by natural gas drilling in Texas. In areas with both coal-fired power plants and gas drilling, cancer rates and immune disorders are well above average and on the rise. Asthma rates among children living near drilling sites are as high as 25% instead of the 7% generally experienced. The accepted limit for ozone concentration must be lowered to 60 ppb or even less. This must be changed as soon as possible. Texans of all stripes, private residents, businesses, and government agencies, must be forced to change their ways to protect the health of the weakest: children, elderly, and the health-impaired of all kinds or we will soon find more and more of us who fit in the health-impaired category. The cost of improving air quality will be off-set by the savings in health care spending, loss due to premature death, employee absenteeism, and new business moving to Texas because the air is clean. Change is hard, but it is long past due and must be done.