Mother Love Is A Force Of Nature

We launched! It's been a busy time for the folks at Moms Clean Air Force. We've been writing, designing, developing, and finally launching a shiny new website!

While I've been holed up with my computer for hours on end, the collaborative effort has been incredibly inspiring. Working with a team is something I've missed being a freelance writer/editor/blogger these past four years.

Once I corral the talented team of writers, and teach them how to use all the nifty new tools, I will have time to write again. Yay!

In the meantime, do you want to learn more about MCAF? Of course you do!

Below is the MCAF welcome note from founder, Dominique Browning. After you check out the website (just beautiful, huh?), please come back and tell me what your thoughts are about the site and our mission to clean up the air. Thank you!

Mother Love Is A Force of Nature

Moms Clean Air Force has a newly designed website, and I’m delighted to welcome you to our community. We’re creating a movement for people who see air pollution as a straightforward, urgently important health issue.

Our goals are simple: educate people about why air pollution is still a big problem; raise awareness about what’s at stake politically; inspire people to take simple, fast action to send Washington a message.

We know moms are busy. But moms are also extraordinarily protective of their children’s health. We specialize in Naptime Activism.

Our bloggers take our message into their communities, reaching millions of readers. We network on Facebook and Twitter. Our growing community includes nurses, doctors, scientists, politicians, novelists, journalists, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, knitters and bakers–concerned moms, dads, sisters, brothers, daughters, and sons. Air pollution is harmful to everyone with a beating heart.

Air pollution contains toxins that harm people’s brains, lungs, and hearts. It is affecting our food and water. Children are especially vulnerable to toxic pollutants; Latino and African American babies suffer disproportionately from poisoned air. While there are lots of things we can do, as individuals, to keep our children safe at home, no one can control the air they breathe. We need regulations for that.

We’re all for respecting reasonable, efficient government budgets. But we don’t want our babies thrown out with the bathwater.

President Nixon’s Clean Air Act of 1970, and the agency he founded, the Environmental Protection Agency, have accomplished a great deal in cleaning American air and water. But the work isn’t done. The sky might be blue, but that doesn’t mean it is clean. In forty years, we’ve learned much more about invisible pollutants that wreak havoc on our health, causing neurological and developmental problems. Asthma rates among children are skyrocketing.

Air pollution isn’t just dirty. It is poisonous. Polluters are fighting for the right to pollute!

The Clean Air Act and the EPA are facing an unprecedented attack by some politicians and coal and oil industry lobbyists. That’s because emissions from coal-fired power plants are the single largest contributor to mercury toxins in our air.

Many responsible coal plant owners have done the right thing and cleaned up their toxic air emissions. It hasn’t hurt their bottom lines at all–they’re making record profits. The EPA has created thousands of jobs for Americans in the last forty years–in sectors from research to enforcement to engineering to new technology development.

Air pollution can be cleaned up. Please join Moms Clean Air Force to make our voices loud and clear. Send politicians a forceful message: Strengthen and enforce pollution regulations!

Polluters have power, money and political influence. But moms have love. And that’s the strongest force of all. Now we have to use it.

PLEASE JOIN MOMS CLEAN AIR FORCE

Clean Air Design: 5 Cool Picks

Can clean air design change the world? Like most artists, designers create objects for our families that reflect social and environmental issues and trends. To solve a health and environmental problem such as air pollution, designers are doing their part in creating homes, clothing, cars and communities that address the crisis.

The Moms Clean Air Force has been chronicling the hazardous connection between where people live and the environmental factors that expose children to pollutants that cause significant health risks, such as lung disease, asthma, lead poisoning, cancer, reproductive impacts, birth defects, and even heart attacks. Air and water are the primary conveyances of pollutants and toxins, but exposure can also occur through contaminated soil during the fracking process.

“Good air quality is key to promoting respiratory health...The main sources of air pollution are area sources (dry cleaners, lawn mowers, etc.), mobile sources (cars, trucks, off-road equipment), and stationary sources (factories, power plants, etc.). These different sources produce different types of pollutants that can cause problems for respiratory health, cardiovascular health, and cancer treatment. Locating sensitive land uses in close proximity to polluting facilities or major roadways can raise health concerns for sensitive populations. Some pollutants tend to have a greater effect over an entire metropolitan area and others drop off fairly quickly away from the source.” ~ Design For Health

5 Clean Air Designs

1. Car Removes 95% of Ozone Toyota has developed a material that can remove 95% of unreacted ozone or ground-level air pollutants from the air when used in an ozone filter. What does this mean? The future car you drive could clean the air instead of polluting it. Read more about this at Inhabitat.

2. Breathing Walls Plants have the ability to do more than just bring a hint of nature into your home. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen during the photosynthetic process. Researchers found many common houseplants absorb benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, and other pollutants. Plants can improve indoor air quality. DIRTT Environmental Solutions created the Breathe Living Wall system for health and energy-savings. The wall lessens the load of ventilation systems, and introduces more healthful plants into living spaces. Read more about this at Top 10 Green Building Products.

3. Clean Air Communities Smart Growth designers and planners are designing communities that include plans for driving less. “With over nine million children in the U.S. suffering from asthma and millions more Americans who die each year due to high levels of air pollution, designing communities in ways that reduce traffic and encourage healthy options like walking and bicycling are crucial.” Read more about this at Smart Growth: Healthy Communities, Healthy People.

4. Buildings Eat Smog Buildings account for nearly 40 percent of America's energy use. Much of this energy comes from coal-fired plants and other dirty sources. Alcoa created EcoClean building panels with a titanium dioxide coating that interacts with sunlight and breaks down nitrogen oxide - the smog-causing compound. The process happens naturally when rain washes off a building. Alcoa claims that 10,000 square feet of coated aluminum would have the air-cleaning effects of 80 trees. Read more about this at Good.

5. Catalytic Clothes Purify Polluted Air OK, this one is my favorite. Catalytic Clothing has created a dress that can purify polluted air through a chemical reaction on the surface of the fabric. They claim the dress can reverse the environmental impact of air pollution!

“Exposure to airborne pollutants presents a risk to human health and also has a detrimental effect on ecosystems and vegetation…The widespread introduction of Catalytic Clothing would dramatically reduce the level of airborne pollutants, thereby improving the quality of life for all members of society.”

Check out this video featuring a model wearing an air purifying dress - background track by Radiohead. Read more about this at The Ecologist.

http://vimeo.com/24560187

Can “design thinking” imbue a wide spectrum of solutions to help in the air pollution crusade? You bet. Good clean air design can change the world! Want to join designers as they connect the dots between design, the environment and our health? The Moms Clean Air Force is an innovative community of parents devoted to finding creative solutions to keep our children breathing the clean air they deserve. Please help us design a future for our children free of pollution. Thank you!

Credit: Ben Scott

Now's The Time...

If you follow Econesting, you know I love children and I am passionate about the attacks on the Clean Air Act. I fear our kids will suffer if it is gutted. Not only do I write for the Environmental Defense Fund's Moms Clean Air Force, but as a parent of two children, a former teacher, and a Board of Trustee member of The Randolph School, I care deeply about the future of our children. I am passing on some important and timely information from one of my favorite writers, Dominique Browning, who is the author of the blog, Slow Love Life and lead blogger of our amazing MCAF team. I hope you will join us in the fight for clean air. Thank you!

Countdown for Writing to the EPA by Dominique Browning

I don't want to nag, though we all know moms are great at that. But I'm going to remind everyone that as of Monday, August 1, we have only FOUR MORE DAYS to write to the EPA  in support of their NEW Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. This regulation will cut down the poisonous emissions from coal-fired electric plants. Fetuses, infants and toddlers are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of toxic coal pollution.

Pro-polluters have been working overtime to cut funding for the EPA and block anti-pollution regulations. They’re spending millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions–to protect their right to pollute!

Motherhood is powerful too. We have to make our voices heard.

This is only the beginning of our fight. Please join the Moms Clean Air Force now and make a difference for your kids.

Someday your children will thank you. Right now, you have to fight for them. Every day for four days, I'm going to nag–and include a great reason to write to the EPA now. But my A Number One Reason will always be the same: my two beloved sons, for whom I will always fight like a mama bear, Alex and Theo. I'll bet you feel the same way about yours.

Here are GREAT REASONS to write to the EPA now.

1. YOUR VOICE MATTERS. No politician wants to make a mom mad. The EPA needs to hear that you want it to protect your right to clean air. Sometimes being a great mom means being an active citizen.

2. WE’VE MADE IT EASY–AND YOU CAN FIND THE TIME. It is faster to write to the EPA than it is to change a diaper. Sometimes being a great mom means being an active citizen. Make your voice heard!

3. POLLUTION CONTROL MEANS MORE JOBS. Green jobs are rising dramatically. Retrofitting coal stacks with scrubbers means more jobs for people in the industry–and a stronger industry overall.

4. HOW DARE THEY HARM OUR BABIES! Fetuses, infants and toddlers are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of toxic pollution. Childhood cancers are on the rise. So are asthma attacks.  Pregnant women are warned against eating tuna fish because it is full of mercury. And polluters keep on fighting for their right to pollute.

Credit: Lainey Fink

Tracking Air Pollution: There’s An App For That!

There’s a breath of fresh air coming from that smartphone you covet in your purse or pocket. It can track air pollution exposure where you live. The National Institutes of Health recently funded a two-year grant to University at Buffalo for exploring data that will link air pollution to location with the study participants’ smartphones.

This app comes about at a time when smartphones and air pollution are on the rise. Smartphones contain a rich set of sensors that include cameras, GPS systems, compasses and accelerometers, and powerful communication capabilities. This has inspired phone technology companies to competitively clamor to create applications that allow their phone users to help monitor air quality. The smartphone app designed for this study will measure the person’s location frequently using the GPS receiver, and track air pollution right from the GPS.

"This project will develop a method that will improve our ability to estimate human exposures to air pollutants, and will improve public health by allowing researchers to more accurately measure human exposures and relate these exposures to health outcomes."

What is the purpose of the app?

The primary purpose is to provide research that links an individual’s health information to their air pollution exposure. The design of the app will give the user an instantaneous or near-instantaneous estimate of air pollution exposure.

How the app will work?

Data from the GPS will stream from the smartphone to researchers server. Scientists will use the information models of air pollution exposure based on person’s location, how close they are to a major road, how densely populated the area is; depending upon the particular time of day and time of year.

Why is it important to track air quality?

With asthma rates on the rise, and some politicians and CEO’s vying to delay, deregulate or ditch the Clean Air Act, research on air pollution and its health effects can help fuel the fight for clean air. Using residential addresses to measure pollutant exposures, researchers will be able to work with public officials to estimate and improve air pollution exposures in certain areas. It can provide for the data for stronger regulations for clean air.

What's in the air?

Power companies, most notably coal-fired power plants emit mercury, and 84 different hazardous air pollutants that cause adverse health effects. Here are just 5 nasty emissions:

1. Carbon Monoxide – Sources of carbon monoxide come from worn or poorly maintained combustion devices, vehicle exhaust and power plant emissions. Acute effects of carbon monoxide can be counted in the formation of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood, which inhibits oxygen intake. At moderate concentrations, angina, impaired vision, and reduced brain function may result. At higher concentrations, CO exposure can be fatal.

2. Nitrous Oxides - From vehicle and smokestack exhaust compromises lung functions and can cause respiratory and viral illness. This is exacerbated in children.

3. VOCs - VOCs react with sunlight and nitrous oxide to form ground level ozone. This is capable of traveling thousands of miles. Once the VOC’s hit ground level, health conditions such as asthma and lung disease are adversely affected.

4. Sulphur Dioxide - Created by the combustion of fossil fuels containing sulphur compounds, contributes to various lung conditions even at moderate levels of concentration.

5. Fine Particles and Soot - Dusts, sulphates and nitrates are emitted from road traffic and power plants. These fine particles can be carcinogenic. They easily pass through the lungs into the bloodstream, causing inflammation and serious conditions, particularly in children and animals.

On the horizon…

For smartphones in the Los Angeles area running the Android system, the experimental Visibility app is being tested near a conventional air pollution monitoring station. The iSmog app by Apple similarly displays a map of smoggy air and air pollution alerts in the Bay area.

Exposure to air pollutants is largely beyond one individual's control. It will require action at the regional, national, international levels…and each and every one of us. By joining the Moms Clean Air Force, you can help us advocate for the need to continue providing technology tracking, which will assist in eradicating air pollution for our children.

The more we study, track and regulate air pollution, the easier our kids will breathe.

Credit: iTunes

5 Scientists (and Dr. Oz) Make Clean Air Sense

Scientists are not political big shots, or the rock stars of the environmental movement. They are concerned citizens like you and I who set out to systematically discover and document answers to pressing scientific queries. Doctors, nurses, researchers and professors devote their lives to making the world a better place for our families.

Earlier this year, more than 2,500 U.S. scientists sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to reject legislation that would gut the EPA of its protective safeguards and ignore the human toll that inaction would take on their citizens. Here is an excerpt from the Scientists’ Statement.

“We urge you (Congress) to oppose attacks on the Clean Air Act by respecting the scientific integrity of the EPA’s endangerment finding, and the agency’s authority to act based on this finding.”

We trust these smart folks with the health of our children. Scientists know that stripping the EPA of its ability to protect our children against environmental pollutants means more asthma attacks, more respiratory illnesses and disease, and more premature deaths. They are well aware that in the past 40 years, the Clean Air Act has prevented 400,000 premature deaths and hundreds of millions of cases of respiratory diseases, which is why…

1. The Lung Doctor - Dr. Albert A. Rizzo of the American Lung Association and a pulmonary and critical care physician, responded to the release of American Electric Power’s evaluation of the impact of Clean Air Act pollution protections:

“Continuing to belch hazardous pollutants into the air we breathe is not an acceptable business practice and neither is threatening rate hikes and electricity shortages when big polluters are asked to clean up their toxic emissions. The EPA’s proposed mercury and air toxics reduction rule will prevent 17,000 premature deaths and 120,000 asthma attacks each year. Yet, American Electric Power (AEP) is irresponsibly attempting to scare Americans away from demanding that their children no longer be exposed to dangerous levels of pollutants like mercury and arsenic, and other toxic pollutants. Clean Air Act protections do not mandate the closing of power plants but rather set standards that many energy companies have met using existing technologies to successfully rein in dangerous pollutants. The imperative to clean up is strong: these toxins are directly linked to grave health problems, from developmental complications in babies and young children, to asthma attacks and long-term lung complications. After more than two decades of delay, big polluters and their friends in Congress want further delays rather than investing in pollution cleanup.”

2. The Pediatrician - Dr. Jerome A. Paulson, for the American Academy of Pediatrics, testified last week at the Senate's Clean Air Act and Public Health hearing. The whole testimony is powerful, but here’s his statement on the effects of mercury on children:

“As a pediatrician who has cared for children suffering from the health impacts of air pollution, I am incredibly concerned about threats to clean air and the effect of air pollution on children’s health…The developing fetus and young children are disproportionately affected by methyl mercury exposure, because many aspects of development, particularly brain maturation, can be disturbed by the presence of methyl mercury. Minimizing mercury exposure is essential to optimal child health.”

3. The Science Professor -  Dr. Arden Pope, a Brigham Young University epidemiologist who led a New England Journal of Medicine study, found that efforts to reduce fine particle pollution from automobiles, diesel engines, steel mills and coal-fired power plants have added between four and eight months to the average American’s life expectancy:

“It’s stunning that the air pollution effect seems to be as robust as it is…However, the continuing problem demonstrates that more remains to be done, especially in cleaning up coal-fired power plants and existing diesel engines.”

4. The Heart Doctor - Dr. Robert Brook is the lead author of The American Heart Association (AHA) report stating that there is strong evidence that air pollution can clog arteries, and cause strokes and heart attacks.

“Particulate matter appears to directly increase risk by triggering events in susceptible individuals within hours to days of an increased level of exposure, even among those who otherwise may have been healthy for years.”

5. The Energy Scientist - Steve Clemmer, the Director of Energy Research for the 
Union of Concerned Scientists claims that limiting coal, gas and nuclear power, and boosting the renewable energy practices of wind and solar, could meet 27% of America’s electricity needs by 2030:

“Unlike natural gas, coal or nuclear plants, wind and solar plants don’t produce air or water pollution, global warming emissions or waste products, and use much less water.”

Oh, there is a rock star scientist…and he knows Oprah!

Dr. Oz says:

“It’s sobering news that one in five people still live in communities with lethal levels of smog and particulate pollution — the toxic soup of chemicals, metals, acids, ash and soot that triggers asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes and early deaths. Makes you want to close the windows, bar the door and stay home.”

The science proves that that Clean Air Act is the bedrock that protects our children from pollution that otherwise would make their lives shorter or less healthy. For the sake of our kids, does it make sense to debunk and diminish the warnings of scientists?

Here’s how to speak up…or forever hold your breath:

Join the Moms Clean Air Force and help us fight for clean air for our kids. We need your voice! If you haven't already, please email the EPA to show your support of the new Mercury and Air Toxics rule. Thanks!

Credit: Anne Burgess for the New York Times