A memorial to the thousands of victims of air pollution in America stopped in Ames Wednesday afternoon.

The Tombstone Tour’s memorial is a giant 10-foot tombstone engraved with an epitaph for the 15,000 Americans that are said by the Environmental Protection Agency to die from air pollution in a year.

The memorial’s visit to Ames was sponsored by local health and environmental activists to gain support for stronger clean air standards that are being proposed by the EPA.

The group also seeks to draw attention to the impact of air pollution on both healthy people and those who already suffer from respiratory disease.

Lisa Cook, a representative of Iowa Citizen Action Network, said five Iowa counties — Black Hawk, Cerro Gordo, Clinton, Polk and Scott—now fail to meet clean air requirements for soot and smog.

Story County presently meets air quality standards, but is home to power plants that burn coal and were “grandfathered” under the 1970 Clean Air Act, Cook said.

“The plants do not have to meet current standards for soot and smog,” she said.

Dr. Ray Overton, a retired Des Moines family practitioner and member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, said industry claims about the proposed EPA changes can be misleading.

“This is not about backyard barbecues, crop dust or Fourth of July fireworks as industry claims,” Overton said. “This is about huge power plants dumping tons of smog and soot into our air and tens of thousands of children and adults who can’t breathe properly on high-pollution days.”

Overton’s comments were in reference to commercials that are being aired around the country by various industries that are opposed to the EPA’s new smog and soot rules.

Helene Mahler, office manager for the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club, said, “Opponents of the elevation of standards insist that the proposed changes will cost vast amounts of money, close businesses, cause job loss and send companies moving off-shore where standards are not as strict. This is a very short-sighted view.”

Mahler said that “historically, polluters have always overstated the cost of cleaning the air..” She encouraged Iowans let their legislators know their air quality concerns.

The memorial’s next stops are Cedar Rapids and Dubuque.