Facts like these have been a driving force behind a campaign by Salt Lake City physician Brian Moench's group to update Utah's air-quality laws - laws that will get a new, in-depth scientific review in coming months, thanks to a decision Wednesday by the state Air Quality Board.

The panel voted unanimously to support the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment's request to make sure state air-quality laws are as tough as the science suggests they should be. The work will begin with appointment of a panel of health and science experts who can review current research on the health damage caused by air pollution, which will advise the state about the adequacy of those laws.

"We're confident in what the process will show," said Moench, who said he was pleased that the air board has taken the group's concerns seriously.

"It's hopeful," said Cherise Udell, founder of Utah Moms for Clean Air, a spin-off advocacy group.

While the idea of studying the effectiveness of pollution regulations may seem dull, the fact that the review is taking place in Utah might be called radical. State law says that air regulators are not permitted to make laws "more stringent than the corresponding federal regulations which address the same circumstances."

The health-based review requested by the physicians is allowed under one condition that is also in the law: "that corresponding federal regulations are not adequate to protect public health and the environment of the state."

The air-quality board has set an aggressive timetable of eight months to conduct the review, but Air Quality Director Rick Sprott pointed out that the schedule might be too ambitious for the all-volunteer expert panel, given that similar reviews on a national level have taken years.

It's likely, he added, that the group will take on one pollutant at a time, probably beginning with PM 2.5 - microscopic panels of soot known to cause health damage and to be unusually high in Utah during winter inversions. Another to be addressed will likely be mercury - an element that can cause neurological damage and that has been detected in wildlife statewide.

Sprott, who will become director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality after a Senate confirmation vote later this month, noted that Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has made improving Utah's air quality a priority. "He's very anxious to get the problem solved," Sprott said.

Moench said his group doesn't want the panel's work to be dragged out. He also said his group will offer suggestions about science-panel members. "We want to ensure the panel is, in fact, independent."

The doctors group formed this winter after a harsh three-week inversion in Salt Lake City. The mothers group formed soon after.

fahys@sltrib.com