March 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration announced the first tightening of air-quality standards since 1997 to reduce pollution from factories, automobiles and utilities that may harm human health.

The new national rules from the Environmental Protection Agency will require cities and communities to set policies to reduce ground-level ozone, or smog. The regulations allow no more than 75 parts of ozone for every billion parts of air, down from 85 parts-per-billion.

Smog is linked to shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing, coughing, heart trouble, increased hospital visits and premature deaths, according to the EPA. The new standard will result in health benefits valued at $2 billion to $19 billion and cost an estimated $7.6 billion to $8.5 billion, the agency said in an e-mailed release.

``The standards are literally the heart and lungs of the Clean Air Act,'' Frank O'Donnell, head of Clean Air Watch in Washington, said yesterday before the announcement. ``They become the driving force for every air clean-up program.''

The 1997 standards required changes in automobile manufacturing, fuel production and electricity generation along the East Coast, O'Donnell said.

The Bush administration has been under court order to update the air standards after settling a 2003 lawsuit brought by the American Lung Association. Stricter rules have been opposed by manufacturers and utilities who argue adopting technologies to control pollution will be too costly.

Stricter Standards

``Changing the ozone standard is the wrong call,'' John Kinsman, senior director of environment for the utility trade group Edison Electric Institute, said in a statement. ``People could end up paying at the pump and through higher energy bills for health benefits they may never receive.''

Ozone forms at ground level when hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, mainly from power plants, factories and car exhaust emissions, react to sunlight, according to the American Lung Association. Ground-level ozone can damage the lungs, while Earth's natural layer of ozone in the upper atmosphere provides protection from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.

``The uncertainty in the latest science does not support tightening the standards,'' the American Petroleum Institute said in a statement. ``Air quality has improved dramatically and, with measures already in place, progress toward cleaner air will continue.''

Fifty counties will exceed the 75 parts-per-billion standard by 2020 using current pollution-control methods, with most located in California, Texas and the Northeast, according to the EPA. The U.S. has more than 3,000 counties. The largest by population, Los Angeles County, is home to more than 9 million people.

Unhealthy Levels

``While the standards I signed today may be strict, we have a responsibility to overhaul and enhance the Clean Air Act to ensure it translates from paper promises into cleaner air,'' Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson said in the statement.

The requirements have helped reduce to about one-third the percentage of the U.S. population now living in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone, according to a 2007 report by the American Lung Association.

EPA staff scientists said in a report last year that the current standards should be somewhere between 60 and 80 parts- per-billion. An independent agency advisory committee recommended a 70 parts-per-billion standard.

The agency's decision today appears ``to ignore recommendations designed to protect public health and public welfare and suggest that science is not the primary basis for your decisions,'' Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter to Johnson.

Most-Polluted Areas

The 10 most ozone-polluted metropolitan areas listed in the American Lung Association report are Los Angeles-Long Beach- Riverside, California; Bakersfield, California; Visalia- Porterville, California; Fresno-Madera, California; Houston- Baytown-Huntsville, Texas; Merced, California; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Truckee, along the California-Nevada border; Baton Rouge-Pierre Part, Louisiana; and New York-Newark-Bridgeport in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 12, 2008 18:41 EDT