Clean Air Ambassador | I want to be able to fight for change to help the health of our community. More than that, I want to make sure we take care of our environment for future generations. Clean Air Ambassador 2013 Brian Urbaszewski Clean Air Ambassador 2013 Betty Koepsel 50 States United For Healthy Air Clean air should be a fundamental right. Air pollution causes asthma attacks, lung disease, and even death. But our bodies don't have to be the dumping ground for dirty industries. The technology to dramatically reduce harmful air pollution is available today, and major polluters should be required to use it. Clean Air Ambassadors from every state are sending a powerful message: Everyone has a right to breathe clean, healthy air. It’s time Congress and the EPA used their ears to help our lungs.Recent findings underscore the cost of air pollution on human health, and the benefits of reducing it, researchers said Friday at the N.C. BREATHE conference in Charlotte.While pollution is rarely a direct cause of death, it raises risks that can shave years off an individual’s life.

One recent study placed air pollution as the fifth-highest risk factor globally, contributing to 5.5 million deaths in 2013.The first BREATHE conference was held in Raleigh last year. It moved to UNC Charlotte Center City as UNCC’s “Keeping Watch” initiative focuses this year on air quality, said June Blotnick of Clean Air Carolina, one of the event’s sponsors.Air pollutants come to life on the side of the UNCC Center City building each night through April 23. The “Particle Falls” animation measures fine airborne particles in real time and displays them in a stream of light. Fine particles, which come from dust, motor vehicles or industries, are particularly lethal. One-thirtieth the width of a human hair, they work deeply into the lungs and were linked to 3.2 million deaths worldwide in 2010, said scientist Antonella Zanobetti of Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Zanobetti cited a study showing that exposure to particles is more likely to lead to hospitalization for patients with Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

A second study, of New Englanders over 65, linked increased deaths even when particles are within federal standards.Because pollutants circulate widely in the atmosphere, air pollution poses global health problems, said UNC Chapel Hill’s Jason West. germ guardian ac5000b uvc tower air purifierOzone pollution from North America and Europe causes more deaths elsewhere than in the regions where it originated.sharp plasmacluster kc-860e ion air purifierTaking steps to control greenhouse gases linked to climate change can have the added benefit of curbing air pollution. pureplug air purifier reviewsWest recently led a study that found that controlling methane can reduce premature deaths by curbing the formation of ozone.

Because it’s expensive to control air pollutants, costs are weighed against public health benefits when federal standards are proposed. That’s the field of Chris Timmins, a Duke University environmental economist.The last major overhaul of federal clean-air standards, in 1990, cost industries $65 billion in compliance expenses, he said. But the benefits, including fewer premature deaths and work days lost to illness, have been calculated at $2 trillion.By taking advantage of the Charlotte B-Cycle bike sharing system, Blotnick demonstrates one way to reduce air pollution locally. June Blotnick is sitting in one of the best window booths at 300 East, a cozy Dilworth café, but she isn’t enjoying the view. She’s picking at a tomato-and-bean concoction (“No chicken,” she tells the waitress after ordering a chicken burrito) and looking out at a long line of cars edging their way along East Boulevard. “This,” she says, tapping the window, “is an invisible problem.”

Clearly she’s not talking about the dense lunchtime traffic. “I’m talking about pollution,” she says. “You don’t see it, but all the cars driving down this street are invisible-pollution machines.” Blotnick is executive director of Clean Air Carolina, an organization that aims to improve air quality across the Charlotte region. “I’ve met people in Charlotte who’ve had to move because the air is too unhealthy. I know a Bank of America executive who’s having to commute to work from the mountains.” Ground-level ozone, or smog, has been plaguing Charlotte for decades, according to the American Lung Association. In 2010 and 2011, the group ranked us the tenth smoggiest city in the country— a distinction attributed to hot weather, power plant emissions, the number of cars on the road, and topography that traps pollutants in the air. The rating, which relies on data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency, improved slightly in 2012. But Mecklenburg County still received an “F” for ozone levels, meaning that the air we breathe may be putting our health at risk.

Having lived here for nearly 30 years, Blotnick knows the city well. “I remember it back when it still had a small-town feel,” she says. “Then the sprawl started, and all the suburbs—the decision to become like Atlanta. Here we are, 20 years later, trying to pull it all back and focus on sustainable development.” Clean Air Carolina, about a decade old and funded by donations and grants, was a volunteer-only organization before hiring Blotnick in 2005. Under her watch, the nonprofit has focused on reigning in sprawl—which sounds like the dirtiest of words when Blotnick says it. Clean Air Carolina has filed two lawsuits attempting to block construction of the Monroe Bypass, a 20-mile toll road planned to help drivers escape heavily congested U.S. 74 in Union County, and the Garden Parkway, a 22-mile toll road planned from I-85 west of Gastonia to I-485 near Charlotte Douglas International Airport. “We don’t need more highways spreading more pollution,” Blotnick says, waving her fork with disapproval.

She’d rather Charlotte invest in public transportation. She’s also trying to ease pollution in the neighborhoods most threatened by it. “Take the Northeast Corridor,” she says. “It is bordered by two major highways, 85 and 77. It is dowsed with pollution. But we’re going to try to blanket that neighborhood with information to see if we can move the needle down a notch.” Clean Air Carolina encourages families to keep children indoors on the afternoons of Ozone Action Days, when air-pollution levels are highest. Precautions such as turning off your engine—rather than idling your car—in the carpool line at school can also make a difference, Blotnick says. “What has shocked and disheartened me the most is the impact air pollution has on the health of our children whose lungs are undeveloped and more vulnerable.” To that end, Blotnick is piloting an initiative called Medical Advocates for Healthier Air, which enlists doctors and respiratory therapists to share research about air pollution’s effects on the body and the brain.