Ep 69: Air Pollution with Molly Rauch & Almeta Cooper (Moms Clean Air Force)
We hope this episode is a breath of fresh air on a critical topic. In 2019, 99% of the world's population lived in places where the World Health Organization air quality guideline levels were not met. Air pollution is widespread and can have tremendous negative impacts on public health and the environment.
Listen in as we talk with TWO incredible guests from Moms Clean Air Force: Molly Rauch (Public Health Policy Director) and Almeta Cooper (National Manager, Health Equity). We deep dive with each guest into their experience in public health policy and what specific policy solutions and individual actions can help address air pollution. Moms Clean Air Force was founded in 2011 with a mission to protect children from air pollution and climate change. They envision a safe, stable, and equitable future where all children breathe clean air. We loved talking with Molly and Almeta and learning more about their unique involvement with this influential organization and beyond. We think after this episode you’ll want to buy an air quality monitor and join the fight for everyone to have clean air.
Learn more about the Natural Environment here!
Episode Intro Notes
What We Will Cover
What do we mean when we say air pollution?
Why is air pollution important?
What are some of the largest sources of air pollution?
How can we reduce air pollution?
Top organizations leading the fight against air pollution
About our guest
What do we mean when we say air pollution?
Air pollution is one of the most visible components of our impact on the environment. We’ve heard of it, we’ve seen it, we’ve probably breathed it, but what do we actually mean when we say “air pollution”?
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines air pollution as “contamination of the indoor or outdoor environment by any chemical, physical or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere”.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required under the Clean Air Act to set national ambient air quality standards for six common air pollutants. They include particulate matter (often referred to as particle pollution), ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and lead. Let’s dive into each of these pollutants to give a better understanding of their primary sources and impacts, as they are important in the U.S. and globally..
Particulate matter includes what are called PM10 and PM2.5, where the digits following the “PM” refer to the pollution particle’s diameter in microns. To put the size of the particles in perspective, PM2.5 is roughly 30 times smaller than a human hair. Particulate matter is dangerous as it can be inhaled into the lungs and absorbed into the bloodstream. Dust from roads, farms, dry riverbeds, construction sites, and mines are types of PM10. Fine particles emitted from vehicle exhaust, machinery that burns any fuels like wood, heating oil, coal, and natural sources such as forest and grass fires are examples of sources of PM2.5. Even indoor sources like tobacco smoke, sauteing or frying, burning candles, or indoor fireplaces can also produce PM2.5.
Ground-level ozone is not to be confused with the layer of ozone that protects the earth from the sun. Ground-level ozone focuses on the tropospheric ozone, which forms in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. It contributes to the formation of smog and causes respiratory problems among those exposed to it. Compared to the “good” ozone layer that occurs naturally, this ozone is not usually emitted directly, but rather forms from chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in sunlight. Ground-level ozone accumulates from pollution emitted from cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, and chemical plants. Ozone pollution can even come from paints, cleaners, solvents, and motorized lawn equipment.
Speaking of motorized lawn equipment, check out episode 60 on sustainable landscaping.
Carbon Monoxide (CO) has been dubbed "the silent killer" as it is odorless, colorless, and doesn't initiate any immediate symptoms when inhaled. CO is formed by the incomplete combustion of fuels. When people are exposed to CO gas, the CO molecules will displace the oxygen in their bodies and lead to poisoning. The greatest sources of CO to outdoor air are cars, trucks, and other vehicles or machinery that burn fossil fuels. A variety of items in your home such as unvented kerosene and gas space heaters, leaking chimneys and furnaces, and gas stoves also release CO that can affect air quality indoors.
Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) is a naturally occurring compound that can be emitted into the atmosphere during volcanic eruptions. Since the increase of industrial activity, sulfur dioxide concentrations have accumulated tremendously. Sulfur Dioxide is produced from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) and the smelting of mineral ores (aluminum, copper, zinc, lead, and iron) that contain sulfur. Most of the sulfur dioxide released into the environment comes from electric utilities, especially those that burn coal. High concentrations and exposure to SO2 can affect lung function, worsen asthma attacks, and exacerbate existing heart disease in sensitive groups.
Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) forms when fossil fuels such as coal, oil, gas, or diesel are burned at high temperatures. Road traffic is the principal outdoor source of nitrogen dioxide. The most important indoor sources include tobacco smoke and gas-, wood-, oil-, kerosene- and coal-burning appliances such as stoves, ovens, space heaters, water heaters, and fireplaces.
Lead is a naturally occurring element found in small amounts in the earth’s crust. At the national level, major sources of lead in the air are ore and metals processing and piston-engine aircraft operating on leaded aviation fuel.
…And what about carbon dioxide (CO2)?
We certainly do hear a lot about CO2 and the gas's implications on our health and the environment, so why isn’t it measured with the EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards? The simple answer is that CO2 wasn’t top of mind when the Clean Air Act was written in the 1970s. However, the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that CO2 is an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act. As a result, several parts of the Clean Air Act have come into force for CO2.
Interesting recent news here is that to be on the safe side on Congress’ intent to regulate CO2 as an air pollutant, Congress amended the Clean Air Act via the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act to make clear that greenhouse gasses are an air pollutant under its provisions.
Let’s take a step back on how air pollution is measured.
Scientists from the EPA measure global and local air quality levels with an Air Quality Index (AQI) with the purpose of educating people on how their local air quality affects their health. Visualize a yardstick that runs from 0 to 500: The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern.
Most countries measure PM2.5, PM10, CO, SO2, NO2, and use whichever has the most dangerous concentration to calculate the AQI, but details and interpretation vary from country to country.
To make it easier to comprehend, the EPA divided the index into six different ranges, each with different health and environmental implications.
0-50 is considered “Good”, 51-100 for Moderate, 101-150 for Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups, 151-200 for Unhealthy, 201-300 for Very Unhealthy, and 300+ for Hazardous.
By virtue of the Clean Air Act, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) with a population of more than 350,000 are required to report the AQI daily to the general public here in the U.S.
Globally (AQI)
Worst: However, there are many cities across the world that experience extremely hazardous levels of air quality. As of September 28th when we recorded for the episode, IQAir identified some major cities that have bad and good U.S. AQI. The worst cities on their list were::
Dhaka, Bangladesh with a US AQI of 191
Lahore, Pakistan with 191
Incheon, South Korea with 166
Wuhan, China with 163, and
Beijing, Cinna with 161.
The best cities on their list were:
Sydney, Australia with 1
San Francisco, USA with 3
Denver, USA with 4
Bratislavia, Slovakia with 5
Detroit, USA with 6
You can look up the AQI of where you live or anywhere else pretty easily through the weather app on your iphone or a tool online where you can find the AQI for any location such as Breezeometer’s.
Why is air pollution important?
Air pollution, in its many forms, can have tremendous impacts on public health and the environment.
Public health - To break down the science, when a pollutant enters our body, it introduces inflammation in our cells, which may lay a foundation for chronic diseases and cancer. Accordingly, in 2013, the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization (WHO) classified air pollution as a human carcinogen.
Public health concerns from pollution now include cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and reproductive, neurological, and immune system disorders.
Some (unfortunate) stand-out stats we found include the following:
In 2019, 99% of the world population was living in places where the WHO air quality guidelines levels were not met.
Around 2.4 billion people worldwide (around a third of the global population) cook using open fires or inefficient stoves fuelled by kerosene, biomass (wood, animal dung, and crop waste), and coal, which generate harmful household air pollution and puts them at risk.
According to the WHO, “exposure to fine particles in polluted air” is responsible for 7 million deaths annually. Comparably, that’s almost double the number of people who died globally from Covid in 2020 and more than five times the number of people killed every year in car crashes.
91% of those premature deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries and the greatest number in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions.
All of these public health impacts cost our society.
One World Bank study found that the global health cost of mortality and morbidity caused by exposure to PM2.5 air pollution in 2019 was $8.1 trillion, equivalent to 6.1 percent of global gross domestic product. That’s just PM2.5! These costs tend to be a higher percent of GDP in the developing world.
There’s also negative cognitive impacts. We recommend listeners interested in this check out the Freakonomics podcast episode titled “This Is Your Brain on Air Pollution.” It talks about some studies that look at impairments in cognition and educational outcomes for those exposed to bad air pollution.
Environment - But wait, (unfortunately) there’s more! Air pollution can also have many impacts on our environment, including acid rain, eutrophication, crop and forest damage, and a decrease in our ecosystems’ functionality. Let’s do a sentence or two on each of those.
Acid rain forms when nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides are released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned. Acid rain can damage trees, acidify soils and water, and can even make water unsuitable for some wildlife.
Eutrophication is a condition in a water body where high concentrations of nutrients (such as nitrogen) stimulate blooms of algae, which in turn can cause fish kills and loss of plant and animal diversity.
Air pollution is responsible for reduced growth and survivability of tree seedlings, reductions in agricultural crop and commercial forest yields, and plants having increased vulnerability to disease.
Like humans, many animals have experienced many negative side effects from exposure to air pollution. Studies show that air toxins are contributing to birth defects, reproductive failure, and disease in animals.
Environmental Injustice + Racism History - A crucial point we must highlight in this episode is the clear injustices and racist history surrounding air pollution.
Recent studies, including one from Science.org in 2021, have noted that racial-ethnic minorities in the United States are exposed to disproportionately high levels of ambient fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5).
Neighborhoods that were subject to redlining in the 1930s tend to have higher levels of air pollution many decades later, a new study has found.
As a refresher, redlining was the discriminatory practice used by the federal government after the Great Depression, drawing lines around Black and immigrant areas that denoted them as risky sites for mortgages.
Here in the US, Americans’ concern about pollution has been falling, which some may say is emblematic of the progress under the Clean Air Act. Thirty years ago, more than 60 percent of Americans said they had a “great deal” of concern about air pollution; today, that number is just 43 percent.
However, this also may be because the U.S. has had other countries take on the dirty practices to supply its goods. A 2017 study published in the journal Nature found that more than 50 percent of China’s air pollution at the time was “associated with goods and services consumed outside…the provinces where they were produced” and that “11 percent of Chinese air-pollution deaths” could be traced to “goods and services used in the United States and Western Europe.”
What are some of the largest sources of air pollution?
We touched on individual types of air pollution but now want to go a bit further into the sources of those types of air pollution. The best way to categorize them is into "point" and "nonpoint" sources.
Point sources refer to the larger emission sources at a fixed location, such as emissions from an industrial facility. Point sources are much easier to track since they are large and in a fixed location.
Alternatively, nonpoint pollution sources are diffused and without a single point of origin, seen in storm water run-off.
Here’s another way to break down the sources. The EPA in its 2017 National Emissions Inventory (NEI) Report concluded that emissions of air pollution come from four major source types: stationary sources, mobile sources, fires, and biogenics (naturally occurring emissions). The NEI divides these four source types into 60 sectors, but we’re going to stay high level.
Point sources represent sources such as Electric Generating Units or boilers, while nonpoint sources include many dispersed sources such as oil and gas, agricultural livestock waste, agricultural burning, and volatile chemical products such as consumer solvent usage and coatings.
Mobile sources include both on-road and nonroad sources, and more specifically include on-road vehicles, aircraft, trains, off-road equipment, and other related sources.
Fires include both wild and prescribed fires.
There are efforts to use data to make localized sources of air pollution more easily known.
For example, Environmental Defense Fund’s Air Tracker tool is live for Houston, Salt Lake City, and Pittsburgh. You can put a pin on the map and learn the likeliest source area of the air you’re breathing.
How can we reduce air pollution?
Cities around the world are implementing some pretty cool initiatives and policies to combat air pollution.
Let’s start with Seoul, South Korea. Within the city, 5G-enabled autonomous robots scan industrial complexes to monitor air quality, while a satellite monitoring system offers real-time air quality data to the public. City leaders have also announced plans to create the first “wind path forest” in Seoul, planting trees close together along rivers and roads to channel air into the city center. The forest is expected to absorb particulate matter and bathe downtown Seoul in cooling breezes.
Let’s move over to the Big Apple, New York City. A congestion charge is set to be introduced for drivers in the Manhattan area. Cars coming in at peak times could pay $9-$23 while overnight commuters could pay $5. A recent environmental impact assessment found the charge would cut traffic, improve air quality, make buses more reliable, and increase transit use by 1-2%. Further, the fee would raise $15 billion in debt financing for mass transit improvement.
For information on transit-oriented development, check out episode 62.
And finally, let’s check in on Accra, Ghana. Accra became the first African city to join the BreatheLife campaign, a joint campaign by WHO, UN Environment Programme, World Bank and the Climate & Clean Air Coalition, to mobilize cities to act on air pollution. The city is also part of the pilot of the WHO-Urban Health Initiative. Through it, the Ghana Health Services and the WHO work to encourage a switch from coal-based cookstoves to ones powered by gas or electricity in order to protect mothers and children from household smoke.
There are also methods to capture particulates before they're released into the air.
One very common way to remove air pollution, like SO2, before they’re released into the air is by installing scrubbers in smokestacks, which is a pipe or funnel through which smoke and gasses are discharged.
In a dry scrubber, the emissions pass through a mixture of limestone and water, reacting to create gypsum - a material that can be used in concrete or drywall.
In a wet scrubber, emissions pass through a chamber where water droplets are sprayed to attract the harmful particles. The water and particles are then treated to remove the particles and the water is recycled.
Data shows that most wet limestone and lime spray drying installations appear to be capable of about 90 percent SO2 removal.
On a personal level, there are a few ways you can reduce your air pollution.
One example is by driving less or purchasing an electric vehicle (EV).
Personal gasoline-powered vehicles emit harmful gasses like nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, benzene, and formaldehyde. Further, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation account for about 27% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor of U.S. GHG emissions.
Worse even than gasoline-powered vehicles are diesel trucks, buses, and automobiles.
Despite getting better mileage than gasoline, Diesel emits 25-400x more particulate black carbon (soot). If you own a diesel vehicle, consider retiring it as soon as possible.
The EPA highlights some additional steps, including:
Looking for the ENERGY STAR label when buying home or office equipment.
Be sure your tires are properly inflated.
Use environmentally safe paints and cleaning products whenever possible.
Avoiding excessive idling of your automobile.
And avoiding the usage of gas-powered lawn and garden equipment.
Top organizations leading the fight against air pollution?
United States
American Lung Association does good work on this including its annual State of the Air info where you can see state report cards, as well as search by state, county, and metropolitan statistical area for information.
The Environmental Defense Fund has been challenging rollbacks of the Clean Air Act and other environmental regulations meant to reduce methane emissions.
There’s also of course many local efforts to improve air pollution and stop projects that will exacerbate the problem.
A great example is a story in fall 2022 edition of the Sierra Club magazine about the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, a local advocacy group in Pennsylvania fighting to stop, or at least reduce the damage, from an 800-acre petrochemical complex being built in the small town of Potter Township, Pennsylvania.
Global
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is working to reduce air pollution.
Alliance for Clean Air through the World Economic Forum is a corporate movement for clean air to accelerate climate action and create healthy communities around the world. It has three objectives:
Measure and reduce. Establish air pollution footprints and set ambitious targets to reduce the air pollution emissions.
Champion. Act as champions by raising awareness among stakeholders about the impact of air pollution.
Innovate. Harness innovation capability to showcase and pilot pioneering projects that reduce air pollution.
Clean Air Fund is a philanthropic organization that supports partners to create a future where everyone breathes clean air.
One nice output of theirs is The State of Global Air Quality Funding. It's a global snapshot of clean air funding from donor government and philanthropic foundations. Their research highlights funding trends and gaps, as well as makes recommendations for smarter investment.United States
American Lung Association does good work on this including its annual State of the Air info where you can see state report cards, as well as search by state, county, and metropolitan statistical area for information.
The Environmental Defense Fund has been challenging rollbacks of the Clean Air Act and other environmental regulations meant to reduce methane emissions.
There’s also of course many local efforts to improve air pollution and stop projects that will exacerbate the problem.
A great example is a story in fall 2022 edition of the Sierra Club magazine about the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, a local advocacy group in Pennsylvania fighting to stop, or at least reduce the damage, from an 800-acre petrochemical complex being built in the small town of Potter Township, Pennsylvania.
Global
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is working to reduce air pollution.
Alliance for Clean Air through the World Economic Forum is a corporate movement for clean air to accelerate climate action and create healthy communities around the world. It has three objectives:
Measure and reduce. Establish air pollution footprints and set ambitious targets to reduce the air pollution emissions.
Champion. Act as champions by raising awareness among stakeholders about the impact of air pollution.
Innovate. Harness innovation capability to showcase and pilot pioneering projects that reduce air pollution.
Clean Air Fund is a philanthropic organization that supports partners to create a future where everyone breathes clean air.
One nice output of theirs is The State of Global Air Quality Funding. It's a global snapshot of clean air funding from donor government and philanthropic foundations. Their research highlights funding trends and gaps, as well as makes recommendations for smarter investment.
Expert guests
We’re lucky enough to have two guests this episode - two moms to be exact - both hailing from Moms Clean Air Force. For reference, Moms Clean Air Force is a community of over one million parents united against air and climate pollution to protect our children’s health. The organization advocates on national and local policy issues through a vibrant network of state-based community organizers.
First, we have Molly Rauch, Public Health Policy Director at Moms Clean Air Force.
Molly develops clean air campaigns, creates educational resources, manages media outreach, cultivates partnerships and collaborations with other organizations, and writes about public health, science, and policy. Prior to joining Moms Clean Air Force in 2011, Molly held several positions with Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Molly received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Williams College and her Master of Public Health from Columbia. Her policy expertise has been featured in the New York Times, The Hill, and National Public Radio.
Then we’ll speak with Almeta Cooper, National Manager of Health Equity.
Almeta’s work on clean air and climate justice issues for Moms Clean Air Force is a natural progression of her 30-year career as an executive, attorney, and advocate for organizations focused on health care, health equity, and women and girls.