Clean Air Month 05 Media Release

SANTA BARBARA, CA — Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) and the American Lung Association of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties (ALA) today announced several initiatives in celebration of Clean Air Month (May). “Clean Air Month is a time to focus on the importance of clean air to our health, and to the health of our children,” notes APCD Director Terry Dressler. Recent studies have shown that air pollution causes a range of respiratory problems, harms lung development in children, can help cause early childhood asthma, and is associated with a higher incidence of heart problems, including heart attacks.

During Clean Air Month, APCD and ALA will distribute a poster in Spanish and English on the effects of air pollution on our lungs and hearts to schools, doctors’ offices, clinics, medical centers and other locations around the county. The APCD will also distribute information on new state laws that prohibit excessive idling of diesel trucks, buses and school buses, and promote APCD’s program to provide close to $1 million in grants this year to help fund the purchase of cleaner diesel engines for school buses and other diesel vehicles and equipment. Says Jayne Brechwald, Director of the local office of ALA, “The American Lung Association is increasingly concerned about diesel exhaust. It is extremely harmful to our lungs, and diesel exhaust particulate is considered the number one airborne carcinogen in the state.” Every May the national office of the American Lung Association releases a report card on air quality. Due to grading criteria designed to raise awareness about clean air issues, Santa Barbara County does not typically get a good grade. The county currently meets federal health-based standards for ozone and particulate matter pollution, but does not meet state standards for these pollutants.

Dr. Elliot Schulman, Director of the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, remarks, “We know that air pollution is particularly hard on children and adults with asthma or other respiratory problems, or heart problems. With asthma rates on the rise, Clean Air Month is a good opportunity for the medical community to hear more about air pollution’s impacts on our health, and for everyone to learn more about what we can do for cleaner air.”

APCD, ALA, and Marian Medical Center are co-sponsoring a Clean Air Month event at Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria on Friday May 6, 11:30-12:30, featuring speakers, display of an Orcutt School District propane-powered school bus (purchased with help from APCD’s grant program), display of emission-control equipment that can be installed on school buses (with funding from APCD); an educational exhibit on human lungs; and display of hybrid gas-electric vehicles from Ford, Toyota, and Honda. The public is welcome, and people who attend can receive a range of informational materials, plus free pedometers (while supplies last).

For all the information on Clean Air Month, and local initiatives, visit this page on this site,or www.lungusa.org, or call APCD or ALA at the numbers listed above. To find out what one person can do for cleaner air, see this page.

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May is Clean Air Month

Raising Awareness of Air Pollution’s Impacts on Health Close to $1 Million in Grants Available to Clean Up Diesel Pollution

Raising Awareness of Air Pollution’s Impacts on Health
Close to $1 Million in Grants Available to Clean Up Diesel Pollution