Do you know what your lungs are breathing? The American Lung Association State of the Air 2009 report shows that over 186 million Americans live in counties where air pollution endangers their lives. This includes over 40 million people in counties where the air failed every test.
You can help make the air you breathe cleaner. Tell the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strengthen the air pollution health standards, known as National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter (soot) and ozone (smog). These standards protect your health by setting a legal limit on the safe levels of pollution in the air.
The current standards set by the EPA are insufficient in protecting the health of sensitive populations such as children, the elderly, and those with heart and lung disease.
Follow this link to see how we rank in Oklahoma and Tulsa air quality. We must support cleaner air quality standards for ourselves and our children and grandchildren. Cleaner air will reduce our personal costs for doctors fees, insurance fees, prescription costs along with lost wages and lost production time.
Why are we spending more on being sick and having more problems breathing? Dirty air is driving citizen and workplace costs higher and higher.
Oklahoma
PreserveMidtown founders Melissa Waller, Patty Southmayd and Barbara VanHanken enjoyed the day at this year’s Earth Fest at the Tulsa Zoo in April. We celebrated the day by encouraging families to plant their own gardens with compostible paper packets of organic watermelon seeds that we gave away. A garden is very earth-friendly because you won’t have to use gas to go to the store to buy someone else’s watermelon, you will have used no chemicals on your food and you help keep the ground available for soaking up rainwater rather than let it flow into the storm sewer.
We also took the opportunity educate homeowners and the citizens of Tulsa about the many environmental issues concerned with teardowns and inappropriate infill still happening in our neighborhoods everyday in Tulsa.
We should be requiring the safe removal of all household pollutants like mercury in thermostats, asbestos in insulation and old pipes, auto chemicals like oils & antifreeze, cleaning compounds, lead-based paints, old air-conditioners or refrigerators with freon in them and old paint cans before an older home is destoryed.
Recycling is one of the best energy savers and can include windows, doors, light fixtures, decorative moldings and plumbing fixtures. This is accomplished in some communities by the demolition company holding “demolition auctions” before the demolition begins. This attracts buyers to the home who then take their purchased recycled products home with them.
If the pollutants are not removed before demolition, particles of dangerous chemicals like lead, chlordane and mercury can enter our environment through stormwater runoff from the disturbed lot, as dust into the air we breathe or leaching from the landfill site.
There are abatement procedures that are required to reduce some air-bourne pollution like asbestos. Spraying water on the site before and during demolition will reduce the amount of polluted particles in the air we breathe. This is especially necessary to protect those most affected, our children, senior residents and those with breathing problems like asthma.
If you see a demolition in progress that is releasing dust into the air, you might be smart to keep pets and children in the house and yourself to prevent breathing this material. At this time, there is no city requirement to ensure that all these pollutants have been carefully removed and disposed of properly before the demolition begins.
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