At a news conference in Washington today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it wants to further tighten air-quality standards to reduce both smog and the amount of tiny particles that lodge in the lungs. The EPA's administrator, Carol Browner, said that the proposal would save an additional 20 thousand lives a year by reducing the number of people who develop respiratory diseases like asthma. Environmentalists hailed the EPA's move as long-overdue...but factory owners and makers of products that pollute say the rules could have a devastating impact on business. NPR's David Baron reports.
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