Press

For inquiries regarding Mothers & Others For Clean Air and requests to interview health professionals featured in the short documentary Planet Prescription please contact:

Tanya Coventry-Strader
404-455-5623
Tanya@mothersandothersforcleanair.org

 

Mothers & Others For Clean Air Background Information

MISSION

Our mission is to protect children’s health by reducing the impacts of air pollution and climate change throughout the Southeast. 

What We Do

Mothers & Others For Clean Air creates partnerships between scientists, healthcare providers, parents, teachers, youth, and organizations to facilitate collective learning and action in the southeast.

WHERE WE WORK

Mothers & Others For Clean Air works across a 10 state region: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida.

Get The Facts

CLICK HERE for in depth research articles in our searchable online Research Hub.

  • Despite making progress in cleaning up air pollution, over 40% of people in the U.S. still breathe unhealthy levels of dirty air. 
  • Air pollution causes underlying medical conditions, which can lead to an increased risk for severe illness from the COVID-19 virus.These include heart disease, asthma, emphysema, strokes, cancer, diabetes and kidney disease.
    • Communities exposed to increased levels of air pollution are more likely to catch COVID-19. They are 8-11% more likely to die from the virus.
    • Particulate air pollution (PM2.5) from fossil fuels causes 13% of all deaths in the U.S.
    • Nitrogen oxide (NOx) air pollution causes 1.6% of all deaths in the U.S. Nitrogen oxides primarily come from burning fossil fuels.
  • Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Communities are most burdened by air pollution in the Southeast.
    • Our country has systematically place polluting industries and facilities and highways in low income communities and communities of color. This placement results in severe health inequities.
    • Children who are already suffering trauma from racial injustice are also enduring record heat and air pollution resulting in an undue burden of asthma attacks.
    • The Asthma and Allergy Foundation states that Black Americans are 1.5x more likely to have asthma and 3x more likely to die from asthma than White Americans. Latin(o/a) Americans are 2x more likely to have asthma than White Americans.
    • COVID-19 has hit BIPOC communities of color the hardest.
  • Kids’ and teens’ developing lungs are especially vulnerable because their lungs are still growing and they breathe at a faster rate than grown ups.
    • Children are more susceptible than adults to environmental contaminants and are thus vulnerable to lifelong health effects from air pollution.
    • Breathing dirty air causes: increased incidence of asthma, stunted lung growth, decreased cognition, increased cardiovascular stress, increased frequency of school absences, and lower academic performance. 
  • Asthma makes children more likely to suffer severe consequences of COVID-19, including death. Every state in the Southeast has a higher than average asthma rate.
    • The SE has 30 of the top 100 worst cities to live in for Asthma.
    • Asthma is one of the leading causes of school absenteeism.
  • Children unjustly bear 88% of the burden of disease worldwide from climate change. 
    • In 2020, children who are already suffering trauma from racial injustice are also enduring record heat and air pollution resulting in lowered academic performance.
  • Traveling back and forth to school in diesel-powered buses and gas-powered cars exposes children to air pollution.
    • 26 million children travel on our nation’s 480,000 buses back and forth to school each day. 95% of school buses emit diesel exhaust.
    • Children riding on diesel buses are exposed to up to 4 times more air pollutants than the general population.
    • Diesel exhaust contains many kinds of air pollution including soot, metals, and toxic and non-toxic gases. Some of the toxic gases include ethylene, formaldehyde, benzene, naphthalene, and other known carcinogens.
  • A zero emission future means a future with healthier kids.
    • Electric school buses have lower operating costs–19 cents per mile compared to diesel buses at 82 cents per mile.
  • Over 6.4 million children attend school within point 16 miles of a major roadway AND nearly 1 in 5 schools that opened in the 2014-2015 school year were built near a busy road.
    • PM2.5 from traffic (a mix of diesel and internal combustion) has been linked to reduced cognitive growth in children, worse school performance, more behavioral problems at schools. 
    • Children who from elementary to middle school or middle school to high school that is downwind from a highway have decreased test scores and more behavioral problems.
  • In just 6 years (2009-2014), the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is estimated to have prevented many adverse child health outcomes including 537 asthma cases, 112 preterm births, 98 cases of Austism Spectrum Disorder, and 56 cases of TLBW, with an associated avoided cost estimate ranging from $191 to $350 million.
    • For adults, the RGGI is estimated to have prevented 300 to 830 deaths, 35-390 non-fatal heart attacks, 420 cases of acute bronchitis, 13,000 cases of respiratory problems, 8,200 asthma attacks, 200 ER visits, 180 hospital admissions, 39,000 lost work days, and $5.7 billion in health savings and other benefits. 

 

The Solutions

Local, state, and national leaders need to act now to protect children’s health by stopping the health impacts of air pollution and climate change by: