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Tell Your Leaders To Clean Up The Air
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Join us in calling on local, state, and national leaders to act now to protect our kids by addressing the health impacts of air pollution and climate change!

Access to healthy air is an inherent human right but air quality in the U.S. has been declining over the past few years. Kid’s developing lungs are especially vulnerable to dirty air because they breathe at a faster rate than grownups. This leads to kids suffering the brunt of heat-related illnesses, asthma, respiratory infections, and stunted lung development.

Children who are Black, Indigenous, or a person of color (BIPOC) are suffering at higher rates because they are more likely to live near sources of dirty air, like highways and industry.

This same dirty air making our children sick, is causing the climate to change leading to more flooding, fires, displaced families, infectious diseases, and heat related illnesses.

Our children's health and future are at stake – we need leaders at every level of office to protect health and act on climate change by cleaning up the air NOW!

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Your Senators, Your Congressperson, Your State Legislators, Your Mayor

Subject: Protect Children's Health From Air Pollution

Message:

Dear Elected Official, According to the American Lung Association, air quality in the U.S. has been dramatically declining. Nearly half of the U.S. is breathing dirty air, which causes chronic heart and lung disease. Children are more vulnerable to air pollution because of their developing organ systems, their faster respiratory rate than that of adults and their behaviors — such as spending more time outside and their reliance upon others. They feel the brunt of heat-related illnesses and death; they also suffer more from asthma, respiratory infections and the stunted lung development caused by air pollution. In addition, they unjustly, bear 88% of the burden of disease from climate change worldwide. Access to healthy air is an inherent human right. Yet, because of systemic environmental racism in our county, children that are Black, Indigenous, or a person of color (BIPOC) are more likely to live near a polluting facility and to have higher levels of exposures to air pollution. A study from Harvard University demonstrated that people living in polluted areas have an 8% increased chance of dying from COVID-19. This is a health emergency! This same air pollution that is making our children sick, is causing our climate to change. If left unchecked, climate change will continue to cause devastating health effects from an increase in air pollution, extreme weather events, infectious diseases, and heat related illnesses. Our children's health and futures are at stake. I am calling on my local, state, and national leaders to act now to protect all of our children's health by addressing the impacts of air pollution and climate change. By acting swiftly, we can spare our children the worst impacts of climate change. We can do this by: -Protect and strengthen existing clean air laws & rules. Breathing more long-term ground-level-ozone — commonly known as smog — is the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. These are vital science based public health protections, which save lives. -Electrify school fleets. Children riding on diesel buses are exposed to 4 times more air pollutants than the general population. Diesel exhaust can cause respiratory illness, chronic respiratory inflammation and trigger asthma attacks. Asthma is the leading cause of school absenteeism. Electric school buses have lower operating costs — 19 cents per mile compared to diesel buses at 82 cents per mile. -Site and build sustainable schools. Ensuring schools are built to minimize exposure to pollutants is necessary for children’s health and academic performance. -Increase the use and accessibility of clean renewable energy and energy efficiency measures. Thank you so much for your time. Sincerely,

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