May 01, 2007
How healthy is the air you are breathing?
How healthy is the air you are breathing? You may be surprised to find out that the answer depends, in part, on which side of the Mississippi River you live.
The American Lung Association’s State of the Air: 2007 finds that America’s air quality picture is clearly split East-West. This is actually the first time we’ve seen a geographic split in the eight years that we have been sending out an annual air quality report card. Particle pollution (soot)—the most dangerous pollutant—increased in the East but decreased in the West. Ozone (smog) levels, on the other hand, dropped across the country from peaks reported in 2002. You can learn more about your own area’s air quality grades by checking out the report.
Why the split? Like most topics related to air quality, the complex answer revolves around sound science and federal policies intended to control pollution.
This year’s State of the Air reinforces our life-and-death need for more protective federal standards so that every community in the United States—East or West—can have truly healthy air to breathe. The report finds that 136 million Americans are breathing air that’s not safe. That’s unacceptable.
Every day, air pollution is affecting people’s health all over the United States. The air you’re breathing is cleaner than it was 30 years ago, but it’s still not healthy air!
Breathing ozone (smog) and particle pollution (soot) can literally shorten life, create life-and-death emergencies, and send our most vulnerable Americans to emergency rooms. We must protect them.
With all the research showing how harmful these pollutants are to the health of so many Americans, you’d think it would be simple to decide to clean up the air. But it’s not. Unfortunately, clear scientific evidence can get tangled up in politics.
Right now, we’re in the midst of a critical debate over how much pollution it too much. We at the the American Lung Association and our colleagues at most other health organizations are at odds with the federal government’s definition of what safe levels of smog and soot truly are.
And it’s that definition of “safe levels” of smog and soot that sets official limits on how much air pollution your community can have.
Understanding outdoor air pollution and how it affects human health is complex and can be overwhelming. The most basic piece of the puzzle to understand is that our lungs simply weren’t made to breathe the levels of air pollution Americans continue to have to inhale.
Here are some specifics about how our bodies can react to smog and soot:
- First and foremost, breathing particle pollution can kill. Someone can die on the very day that particle levels are high, or within one to two months afterward. Breathing particle pollution year-round can shorten life by one to three years. It causes many other health effects, premature births to serious respiratory disorders, even when the particle levels are very low. It makes asthma worse and causes wheezing, coughing and respiratory irritation in anyone with sensitive airways. It also triggers heart attacks, strokes, irregular heartbeat, and premature death.
- Ozone reacts chemically (“oxidizes”) with internal body tissues that it comes in contact with, such as those in the lung. When that irritates the respiratory tract, like getting a sunburn or rubbing sandpaper on a wound.
- Smog can cause health problems the day you breathe in high levels of smog, or after long-term exposure. It’s particularly dangerous for people with asthma and other chronic lung diseases, senior citizens, and children and teens.
- Smog can cause asthma attacks, coughing and wheezing, shortness of breath, chest pain when inhaling deeply, and even premature death. Breathing high levels of smog repeatedly over the long term may also lead to reduced lung function, inflamed lung lining, and increased breathing problems.
- Particle pollution is too small to really see—you can see the haze it creates when the sunlight hits it. Particles can be so microscopic that they’re one-seventh to one-thirtieth the diameter of a single human hair—or smaller.
- The body’s natural defenses help to cough or sneeze larger particles out of our bodies. But those defenses don’t keep out smaller particles, and they get lodged deep in the lungs, where they stay and can cause major damage. Some of the particles are so tiny that they can pass through the lungs into the blood stream and travel throughout your body like oxygen.
- When it comes to air pollution, children and teens are more vulnerable than you might realize. Their lungs are still developing, so they can be easily damaged. Because kids are so active and outdoors more often, they can end up breathing more air pollution per pound than adults.
- Many others are vulnerable as well, including probably someone in your family. Not only children and teens, but adults over 65, adults who work or exercise outdoors, anyone with a chronic lung disease like asthma or COPD, anyone with cardiovascular diseases or diabetes—all these people face much higher risk of harm from air pollution.
The bottom line is that too many people are breathing dirty air. America deserves air pollution standards that protect the health of the public—that’s what the law requires.
Why do air pollution standards matter?
States and the U.S. EPA must enforce the Clean Air Act to reduce air pollution to protect health. To do that, EPA sets standards that every community is required to meet. Local communities and states are legally required to control pollution in their areas so that air is as clean as federal standard says it must be.
Standards drive nearly everything the American Lung Association does to clean up air pollution. The tighter the standards are set, the less people will suffer. Right now, we have the rare chance to get EPA to make them tighter—and we have the evidence we need. The last time EPA looked at ozone standards was 1997. It turns out that what EPA thought was safe then, isn’t. We’re calling on EPA to set new standards for ozone at levels that would protect public health as the Clean Air Act requires.
You can let policymakers know you want them to protect the air you breathe. Sign up to join our e-advocacy team.
Posted by lungblogposter at 09:11 AM | Comments (1)
April 27, 2006
What’s the State of Your Air?
As we announce the results of this year’s American Lung Association State of the Air report, I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about the report, and things you can do to help protect our nation’s lungs.
The State of the Air report assigns grades to counties throughout the United States with respect to two of the most pervasive air pollutants, ozone (smog) and particles (soot). Take a couple of moments to see how your community fares, by clicking here and typing in your zip code.
How’d you do? If your county scored an F, unfortunately you’re not alone. According to this year’s report, more than 150 million Americans still live in counties where they are exposed to unhealthful levels of soot and/or smog air pollution. The good news is that, believe it or not, we are seeing real improvements in the air quality in much of the nation, but we’re still a long way from winning the battle against dirty air.
This year we are focusing our attention on the millions of people who live in U.S. port and industrial cities because two big contributors to dirty air are marine and locomotive sources. The EPA has promised to issue guidelines for limiting air pollution from these sources, but has not yet acted. You can help right away by sending an online letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson urging him to issue tough regulations that will clean up dirty diesel locomotives and boats.
Does clean air really make a difference to our health? The answer is yes. Mounting scientific evidence shows that cleaning up the source of air pollution results in cleaner air and less illness and death. A recent study out of Harvard’s School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston showed that when particle air pollution declines in a city, the death rate also declines in the city. While air pollution affects everyone, in particular, people with conditions such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, cardiovascular disease and diabetes are affected. As if that’s not enough, the nearly 40 million children under 18 and the 17 million adults who are 65 and over are also at risk in areas with unhealthful levels of ozone or particle pollution. I can’t stress enough the fact that cleaner air saves lives.
How can you help? The following are steps you can take to help in our continued quest for cleaner air:
- Drive less, not only will you be saving money due to the soaring gas prices, but you’ll be helping the environment. Vehicle emissions are a major source of air pollution. Combine trips, carpool, use mass transit whenever possible and walk more.
- Care for your car. Regular maintenance and tune-ups, changing the oil and checking tire inflation can improve gas mileage, extend your car's life and increase its resale value. It can also reduce traffic congestion due to preventable breakdowns and it could reduce your car's emissions by more than half.
- Get fuel when it's cool. Refueling during cooler periods of the day or in the evening can prevent gas fumes from heating up and creating ozone. And that can help reduce ozone alert days.
- Don't top off the tank. It releases gas fumes into the air and cancels the benefits of the pump's anti-pollution devices. So stopping short of a full tank is safer and reduces pollution.
- Don’t burn wood or trash. These practices are among the largest sources of air-borne particles in many parts of the country. Convert woodstoves to natural gas, which emits far fewer pollutants. Compost and recycle as much as possible and dispose of other waste properly; don’t burn it. Support local efforts to ban outdoor burning of construction and yard wastes.
- Participate in community reviews of local air pollution plans and support state and local efforts to clean up air pollution.
- Use less electricity. Turn out lights and use energy-efficient appliances.
Also remember to take measures to protect yourself. During the summer months, ozone levels are at their highest, but particle pollution can be a threat year round.
If you exercise outdoors, here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Exercise early in the day or in the evening, avoid midday or afternoon training.
- Avoid strenuous outdoor work,if possible, when ozone smog or other pollution levels are high.
- Avoid congested streets and rush hour traffic; pollution levels can be high up to 50 feet from the roadway.
- Make sure teachers, coaches and recreation officials know about air pollution and act accordingly.
Be aware of the Air Quality Index (AQI) levels on a daily basis and act accordingly. The AQI is the standard system that state and local air pollution control programs use to notify the public about levels of air pollution. The AQI levels are generally reported in the local newspapers, television and radio news reports and online at www.epa.gov/airnow. For more information on AQI, click here.
Posted by lungblogposter at 10:00 AM | Comments (5)
March 07, 2006
The American Lung Association Urges Stronger Air Pollution Health Standards and We Need Your Help
Each week I like to pick a lung-health topic that’s been covered in the news with the hope that I can answer some of your questions. This week, I’m asking for your help.
On December 20, 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced new limits on how much particle pollution can be in outdoor air. Unfortunately, despite a strong scientific consensus that both the annual and daily limits on particle pollution need to be tighter to protect public health, EPA failed to propose adequate standards. EPA’s independent outside scientific review panel and the EPA's own staff scientists have proposed tightening both standards. EPA Administrator Johnson overrode these recommendations and proposed a standard weaker than those recommended. The Clean Air Act requires EPA to set these air pollution standards at levels that protect public health. The health science clearly shows that the current federal limits on particle pollution are set too high, allowing air pollution that leads to the premature deaths of thousands of Americans each year. The EPA proposal will leave millions of Americans unprotected and will lead to thousands of premature deaths. EPA will announce its final decision on those standards by September 27, 2006.
If EPA's proposals are adopted, tens of thousands of people who could have been protected will die prematurely. Polluters are blaming these deaths on anything but their pollution, even denying the evidence of thousands of studies because they don't want to have to clean up.
Tens of thousands of Lung Association volunteers and advocates sent messages to Administrator Johnson telling him to set the standards where they really can protect public health. You, too, can join in our e-advocacy network and help clean up the air we all breathe – click here to sign up! Thank you for your help.
Posted by lungblogposter at 07:56 AM | Comments (1)
