Air Quality is Really Important!
Did you know that you can affect your own air quality?
Here’s a great infographic from Clean Air Partners – read it, or see my summary below, for useful information on the quality of the air you breathe.
Some air quality problems are beyond our control. You might live in a high-traffic area. Your geographic location may cause fog combined with smog.
But did you know that you also have an effect on your air quality?
What’s the Problem?
The quality of the air that we breathe is changed by passenger vehicles, dry cleaning solvents, gas / petrol stations, gas / petrol lawn tools, tractors, airplanes, boats, power plants, and factories.
Poor quality air is bad for our health – and it’s definitely not green or eco friendly.
Climate change causing more extreme weather conditions, could also make the problem even worse.
Ozone Season
In most parts of the Northern hemisphere, Ozone Season is May – September.
If you or your child or a loved one is sensitive to air quality, you need to take special precautions during ozone season.
You need to check your local air quality conditions – be aware of code orange or code red air quality days.
Those most at risk are children, seniors (65+), athletes and those with respiratory or pulmonary conditions.
Air Quality – What You Can Do
You can have a direct impact on the quality of the air around you.
Here are some simple things you can do to help:
- Don’t use gas / petrol powered lawn tools on bad air quality days
- If you are driving a car, bus or truck, don’t idle your engine
- Try to work from home one or two days a week to save your commute
- Replace incandescent light bulbs with CFLs or LEDs.
- Use public mass transport instead of a private vehicle, or car share
- Keep your vehicle properly maintained
- Combine your errands to reduce the amount you travel
These will all help to improve the air that you breathe.
The infographic above is from Clean Air Partners. They operate in the US in DC, MD and VA. You can get a free AirAlert delivered to your Inbox on bad air quality days (as the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed), and they also offer a free widget with a 3-day air quality forecast.
If you live outside these areas, Google “air quality” and the name of your town, city or area.
Spread the word about air quality – it’s important! Share this informative post with your friends and family – sharing buttons below and right – thank you!
I gave away my car and am converting my grass to garden beds so there won’t be any need of a lawn mower. As I look around my neighborhood I notice a few neighbors who live without cars and fortunately there is so little traffic here along our streets that we have cleaner air than had I chosen to live in an urban area.
That’s great Lois, those garden beds will be wonderful, and so much more productive than lawn. It sounds like you’re settled in a really nice neighbourhood – reduced traffic is such a bonus!
I’m really lucky where I live, open land on 3 sides of me, and almost no traffic on the little dirt track to my home. My little island apparently has the 2nd cleanest air in the world, which is great because the house is fully open all the time. The only downside is I need to keep my wee car as I’m quite a way from anywhere, but my friends and I car share and combine errands so it works out well. Thanks for sharing your lovely clean air, and what you’re doing to make sure it stays that way!
So many take the air they breathe for granted. In this family we don’t. Mom died of pulmonary fibrosis and my sister has it too. Every breath is a gift. My daughter takes the metro to work when she can’t work from home. My son works from home and I leave on rare occasion to either combine my trips, take public transport or carpool. My lawn is going bye bye like Lois’. I’ll be putting in raised beds instead. Until then, have a wee electric mower that was free and will be passed on to someone else. We are all finally getting the picture and doing our best to make things better. I drive a 10 year old suburban. Can’t afford to trade it in but mostly use it for hauling and heavy work. It’s my truck and will be moving my daughter this weekend. Thanks for keeping us on our toes.