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

DIY: Create Your Own Clean Air Act (with video)

I am a bit of a DIY maven. If I can’t find an item that I need or want, I locate a tutorial, purchase a how-to book, or join a group. Figuring out how to make something is an immensely rewarding challenge – it truly becomes yours.

I’ve been watching the emergence of the latest DIY wave. It began very grassrootsy, and to some degree this convergence of art, craft, music and design is still an indie movement. Some say there is a new dimension in the latest surge of DIYers based on the fantastic craftiness of the 1970’s. Our parents and grandparents rocked it like they rocked the Clean Air Act in 1970. Unfortunately, while DIY may be on the rise, clean air is taking a nosedive.

Clean Air Belongs To Us!

According to the latest health, political and environmental exposés, air pollution is soaring. Asthma rates are ridiculous, the planet is heating up, and some politicians are teaming up against our kids with pro-polluting power company CEO’s. These folks are lying, distorting, and fabricating the facts to confuse and insult the public.

The sobering evidence might make you want to never leave your house, but experience tells that nothing good comes from that. The problem doesn’t go away…it only gets worse.

In the spirit of DIY, let’s make our own Clean Air Act!

3 Ways To Create Your Own Clean Air Act

1. Identify there is a problem to solve. This is an easy one…The American Lung Association published an important document, the State of the Air that analyzed the data and proved one in five people still live in communities with lethal levels of smog and particulate pollution. Need more ammo? Read on.

2. Figure out the cost. The cost is our time, energy, and parent power. The legwork can get done by joining the fight. We can email our public officials, share clean air ideas with our communities through Twitter and Facebook, and tell those who believe it is too expensive to protect our air, water and land, that it's much more expensive not to.

3. Dive in and make it yours. The last clean air fix to limit emissions in 2008 was politically driven. President Bush chipped away at recommendations for stronger protections. These standards allowed far more ozone than the EPA’s science advisers unanimously recommended, and far more than Clean Air Act requirements at the time allowed. We can cut through the political smog.

Here's how moms and dads can drive the clean air movement:

Pollution Monitoring Enforces The Law - Let’s keep our eye on the ball and work with scientists and state officials to lower the monitoring costs, expand the ability to track pollutants, and protect the legacy of the Clean Air Act.

Don’t Delay – Unfinished projects are the bane of a DIYers existence. They are costly and unproductive. Clean air delay tactics are dangerous because they also cost lives. If the rules continue to erode, and politically-driven decisions take the place of scientific ones, our children will continue to suffer.

Work Together - Just like creating a group project, we can create a DIY Clean Air Movement. Participate in strengthening air quality by restoring a commitment to science and law that will protect our kids from pollution. It will not just bring immense DIY satisfaction, it can give our kids the healthy future they deserve.

Join the DIY Clean Air Movement because...Clean Air Belongs To Us!

Credit: Ketzel via Standard

Worth Fighting For

I visited my mom for her birthday last week. She always possessed a practical, no-nonsense attitude. Mom is the personification of a hip 80 year-old, but she reminds me often that growing up during the Depression gives her an edge of realism. Her mind is as sharp as a tack, so even at her advanced age, she’s truly light years ahead of her pack. Mom is still a voice of reason.

Since Mom’s body is not as sprite as her intellect, she walks and walks to keep fit. As she was preparing for a recent trip to visit relatives in Spain, Mom tells me, “I’m walking longer everyday to get ready for the trip. When I want something bad enough, like staying healthy, I become an advocate for it. I’m fighting to keep my mobility. As long as I can still breathe, there’s always something worth fighting for.”

What comes to mind when you hear the word advocacy? I asked Mom to define it: “Advocacy is the efforts and struggles of one person or a group of individuals to take action.”

I shared my mom’s vision of advocacy when I was a teacher. When a parent came to me with the notion their child had been wronged by the system, I would say, “I will help you, but you are your child's best advocate. No one else can fight their battles like you can.”

Whether we advocate for ourselves, like my mom is doing to stay fit, or we take on the school system like I suggested to parents whose children were not being well served, or we band together collectively for our children’s future health, like my friend and MCAF colleague, Dominique describes in Applesauce And Mercury In Fish: The Connection, the focused goal is to ensure that something important gets done.

In the case of clean air, advocacy is a handy word and a powerful tool. To ensure that our children's future includes clean air, how about we put advocacy into action? Believe me, you’ll be in good company with the League of Women Voters, National Audubon Society, American Academy of Pediatrics, World Wildlife Fund, and over 200 other groups…lest not forget the 75% of voters who support clean air.

Want to learn how to advocate for clean air? The Moms Clean Air Force is an advocacy group. We will help you. This is our job. But, you’ve got to take the first steps…

3 Steps To Effective Advocacy and 3 Ways To Support Clean Air

Present clear reasons for your requests Here you go: 1. Your Family’s Health 2. The Economy 3. The Environment

Provide accurate and helpful information Here you go: 1. What are the benefits of the Clean Air Act? 2. Why is cleaning up the mercury in coal plants important? 3. Why do power companies need regulations?

Share what you know with others for support Here you go: 1. Tell the EPA you support the new Mercury and Air Toxic Standards. 2. Join the Moms Clean Air Force and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Don’t forget to tell your friends to follow too! 3. If you blog, please add this badge to your side bar to show your support:

When mom came home from Spain, she was immensely proud that she had kept up with the rest of the family. She chided, “You just need to advocate for what you want and then go out and get it.”

Who is your child’s best clean air advocate? You are.

Credit: Beth Hoeckel via Anthology

Nip Bud Nip

Believe me, you DO NOT want something called, Bud Nip or Chlorophopham sprayed on your food. Not only is it a plant growth inhibitor that puts the kibosh on potato sprouting, it probably sends kids into outer space too...or was that Sputnik? As Congress continues to debate ways to regulate pesticides and restrict the EPA’s ability to protect our food, water and air, I couldn’t help but think that the little girl in the video below might just be the best advertisement for eating organic fruits and vegetables.

Bud Nip, Sputnik...whatever. It's not good to send our kids the message that spraying pesticides on their food is ok. Plus, as you'll see in this video, kids are too smart for that nonsense - they want pesticides like Bud Nip nipped in the bud.