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Understanding Air Quality for Healthy Walking, Playing and Recreation

Understanding Air Quality for Healthy Walking, Playing and Recreation. October 18, 2012 Jeanette Marrero U.S. EPA Region 5 . Air Pollution. Outdoor Air Pollution - Criteria Air Pollutants - Air Toxics Indoor Air. What are Criteria Pollutants?.

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Understanding Air Quality for Healthy Walking, Playing and Recreation

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  1. Understanding Air Quality for Healthy Walking, Playing and Recreation October 18, 2012 Jeanette Marrero U.S. EPA Region 5 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  2. Air Pollution • Outdoor Air Pollution - Criteria Air Pollutants - Air Toxics • Indoor Air U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  3. What are Criteria Pollutants? • The Clean Air Act (CAA) identifies six common air pollutants, known as “Criteria Pollutants”: • Ozone • Particulate Matter • Carbon Monoxide • Sulfur Dioxide • Nitrogen Dioxide • Lead • EPA uses these 5 criteria pollutants as indicators of air quality. • Air quality directly affects our quality of life. Local air quality affects how you live and breathe. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  4. Health Effects of Criteria Pollutants

  5. Health Effects of Criteria Pollutants

  6. Health Effects of Criteria Pollutants U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  7. Five major goals for protecting and promoting human health and public welfare are identifiedin the CAA as amended: • Mitigating potentially harmful human and ecosystem exposure to six criteria pollutants; • Limiting the sources of and risks from exposure to HAPs, which are also called air toxics; • Protecting and improving visibility impairment in wilderness areas and national parks; • Reducing the emissions of species that cause acid rain, specifically SO2 and NOx; • Curbing the use of chemicals that have the potential to deplete the stratospheric O3 layer. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  8. How does EPA limit Criteria Air Pollution? National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS): • Primary NAAQS: • Protect public health, including the health of sensitive populations such as asthmatics, children, and the elderly • Secondary NAAQS: • Protect public welfare, including protection against decreased visibility and damage to animals, crops, vegetation, and buildings

  9. How does EPA limit Criteria Air Pollution? • State Implementation Plan • Permits • Enforcement • Grant Support Activities • Voluntary Programs U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  10. Air Quality Index (AQI) - A Guide to Air Quality and Your Health • EPA and local officials use the AQI to provide simple information about your local air quality, how unhealthy air may affect you, and how you can protect your health. • The AQI focuses on health effects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. • To make it easier to understand, the AQI is divided into six categories. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  11. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  12. Get Your Local AQI Forecast • Log on to EPA’s AIRNow Web page at www.airnow.gov • Sign up for EnviroFlash, www.enviroflash.info, an e-mail and cell phone notification service that alerts you when your local air quality reaches certain levels. You can specify preferences. • Download Free AIRNow iPhone & Android Apps! • If you have limited Internet access, you’ll find that many local television stations, radio stations and newspapers also carry local AQI forecasts. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  13. School Buses and Vehicles Idling • Twenty-five million American children ride school buses daily. • On average, students spend an hour and a half each day in a school bus. • In addition, to producing a number of hazardous pollutants, diesel exhaust contains significant levels of particulate matter. • Children are more susceptible. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  14. Vehicles can emit air toxins. • If parents idle their vehicles during student drop-off and pick-up, emission can be pulled into a school through the building’s air intakes. • Emissions can accumulate and cause serious health issues for staff and students. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  15. Reduce Emissions • Encourage policies to eliminate unnecessary school bus idling. • Upgrade or “retrofit” buses and replace older vehicles with newer, more efficient models www.epa.gov/cleanschoolbus • Establish anti-idling zones for all vehicles at the school. • Locate passenger pickup and drop off areas away from a school’s air intake supply and classroom windows.

  16. Questions? Thank You! Jeanette Marrero (312)886-6543 marrero.jeanette@epa.gov

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