Healthy Air -- for All

 

Earlier this fall, I was honored to receive the Healthy Air Award for 2007 from the American Lung Association of Maine.  Sen. George Mitchell’s presence at the ceremony, as well as the presence of so many of Maine’s public health leaders, also inspired reflection on the importance of local and global air quality.

 

Maine breathes from the tailpipe of the United States.  Our asthma rates are the highest in the nation -- with the highest rates among children.  Our air quality, even in places like Acadia National Park, is among the worst.  And an estimated 80 percent of our air pollution comes from beyond the state lines.

 

It is difficult to imagine, or to measure, the impact on our health.  While we understand many of the direct health impacts and associated costs, there is much we have yet to learn as well.  Overall, our global air quality has never been so poor as it is today.

 

Ever modest, Senator Mitchell credited many others for the important leadership on air quality standards that has taken place in recent history.  He particularly reminded us of the powerful example set by Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine, calling him the greatest environmental leader this country has seen.

 

Thanks to Mitchell and Muskie, Maine’s leadership on clean air issues is legendary.  Last spring, Maine led again on a variety of initiatives.  Most notably, we enacted the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, creating a regional cap-and-trade system for CO2 emissions by large, fossil-fuel generators.

 

Still, air problems ignite as fast as we put them out.  Non-point-source pollution, for instance – localized emissions from households and individuals – are a growing and tough-to-tackle threat. 

 

Is it a right of Americans to leave vehicles idling?  To smoke in cars where children are present?  To build with inadequate insulation?

 

Increasingly, we understand these acts as a form of toxic trespassing.  Collectively, this trespassing now impacts us more than the smoke emitted from large factories.  And those who suffer most from toxic trespassing are our young children.  It is their lungs and lifespans, and their health care bills, that are most compromised.

 

Taking their work to a new level, the American Lung Association of Maine has launched “Own Your Air,” a new initiative focused on the challenge of toxic trespassing.  Its message is one of empowerment, of entitlement, and of education.

 

I will be working closely with ALA-Maine this year, and over the next few years, to ensure that our air becomes healthier, not less healthy.  Our lungs and lifespans deserve no less.