What You Can Do To Protect Yourself and The Air You Breathe

The American Lung Association encourages all Americans to get involved in the fight for cleaner air.  Here are some simple and effective ways you can help:

1. Walk, bike, or carpool.  Combine trips, use buses, subways or other alternatives to driving.
2. Fill up your car after dark.  Gasoline emissions evaporate while you fill up your gas tank and contribute to forming ozone.  Filling up after dark helps prevent the sun from turning those gases into smog. 
3. Check your daily air quality levels and air pollution forecasts.  These are often given with local weather reports, printed in newspapers and are available online at www.epa.gov/airnow/.
4. Don’t burn wood or trash.  Burning firewood and trash are some of the largest sources of particle pollution in many parts of the country.  If you must use a fireplace or stove for heat, convert your woodstoves into natural gas, which has far fewer emissions.
5. Get involved in your community’s review of air pollution plans and support state and local efforts to clean up the air.
6. Use hand-powered or electric lawn care equipment rather than gasoline-powered.  Two-stroke engines like lawnmowers and blowers often have no pollution control devices and can pollute the air even more than cars.
7. Tell your member of Congress to protect the Clean Air Act.  Give local legislators the message that you want them to protect the air, by sending them an e-mail or fax.  Log on at www.lungusa.org to see how easy it can be to make a difference.
8. Avoid exercising outdoors when pollution levels are high.  Consider walking in an inside shopping mall or gym or using an exercise machine. Always avoid exercising near high traffic areas.  Try to limit the amount of time your child spends playing outdoors if the air quality is unhealthy.
9. Encourage your child’s school to reduce school bus emissions.  Most buses use heavily polluting diesel engines; newer fuels and engines are cleaner.  Many school systems are using the EPA’s Clean School Bus Campaign to clean up these dirty emissions. Schools are also not allowing school buses to idle at the building, to keep exhaust levels down.
10. Contact your local American Lung Association for more information about air pollution, lung health and local air quality control at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872), or visit www.lungusa.org.