Clean air takes more than a mother’s touch

From expiration dates on milk cartons to the warning stickers on new toys, as a mother, I count on accurate labels to keep my family safe. When it comes to protecting our kids’ lungs from air pollution, however, it turns out that every mother has to be more proactive.

For years, medical experts have been urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strengthen our smog pollution standard and ensure that the air alert system in place reflects what the best science says is healthy for our kids. Our current smog alert system is based on outdated science, which means that dangerous levels of smog are permitted in our air without even triggering an appropriate warning — often known as code red or orange air alerts. That’s why the medical community, clean air advocates and mothers across the country want our current smog pollution standards strengthened, and are sending that message to the EPA in the home stretch of a comment period that ends on March 17.

{mosads}When left unchecked, smog pollution is a monster far scarier than those our kids think are under the bed. Breathing it in, even for short periods of time, can trigger immediate health problems, like asthma attacks, and long-term exposure can instigate nervous system disorders and serious heart problems, and lead to permanent lung damage. Long-term exposure has also been linked to premature death.

Right now, on days with high levels of smog pollution, doing something as simple as playing outside can be a health risk for our kids. With their developing lungs, they are especially susceptible to its dangers. This is why, for many parents of kids with asthma, there is always a nagging fear that a day outside could lead to an attack that requires a mad dash to the hospital. This is a heartbreaking reality. Playing outside with friends and family should be a basic rite of passage for our kids, not a potential health risk that takes a toll on our families, our wallets and our future.

Studies show that America loses billions of dollars in lower worker productivity and sick days due to smog every year. Asthma attacks strike nearly one out of every 10 school children in the United States, and it’s the No. 1 health issue that causes kids to miss school. On “bad-air days” or “air alert days,” particularly during the warmer months, kids with asthma are forced to stay indoors to avoid aggravating their conditions, costing parents the time and money it takes to make alternative arrangements and robbing kids of some of the golden days of their childhood.

But there is some hope on the horizon. Recently, after listening to medical scientists and doctors, the EPA proposed significantly strengthening the smog pollution standard by lowering it from its current 75 parts per billion (ppb) to something in the range of 65 to 70 ppb. The agency is also taking comments on a standard of 60 ppb. It’s a good start to a vital conversation — and it gives parents the opportunity to act by calling for the most protective standard possible. While it may not seem like much, the difference between these numbers could be the difference between playing on a jungle gym and ending up in a breathing mask.

The EPA estimates that a 60 ppb standard would prevent roughly 1.8 million juvenile asthma attacks, 1.9 million missed school days and 7,900 premature deaths every year. It’s the standard that doctors and scientists say our kids need, and it would provide the public with the most accurate measurement of air safety that medical science has to offer. Setting the EPA’s smog limit higher than what health experts recommend unnecessarily puts lives at risk. People have the right to know if the air is safe outside, especially parents of small children, senior citizens and chronic asthma sufferers.

For communities of color, the EPA’s proposal is especially important because smog pollution disproportionately affects their families, with African-Americans and Latinos more likely to live in counties with high concentrations of air pollution. Research shows that African-Americans are more likely to live in counties with worse smog pollution, have nearly twice the rate of asthma as white children and are four times as likely to die from it.

With the comment period ending March 17, it is up to us parents to make sure the EPA does not kick the can down the road and instead does the right thing, by setting a strong 60 ppb standard. That’s why it’s so important we take this opportunity to send this message to the EPA and urge our friends and neighbors to do the same. Like our food safety labels, the EPA’s “labeling”  for our air is a matter of life and death. Let’s make sure the EPA finalizes a standard that truly protects our families.

Hitt is the director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, a devoted mother and a lifelong advocate for clean air.