Are you looking for a way to improve the air where your children live and breathe? Governor Herbert has declared September 21-25, 2009 as statewide Utah Idle Free Awareness Week, and Utah Moms for Clean Air would like to see the festivities at every school in the State!
Cars are a major source of our air pollution, and shutting off engines in waiting vehicles is an easy fix everyone can practice. Not idling will reduce unnecessary air pollution, and improve gas mileage to boot! Last September 63 schools in Salt Lake County helped spread this message to parents and students, cutting down on exhaust around the school pickup/drop off areas. Now, our new governor and mayors throughout the state are encouraging every school district to participate as well.
Your help is needed! Here are two very important ways you can make Idle Free Awareness Week a success:

• Make sure your child’s school is participating. The school principal and PTA President should know about (or made aware of!) the Idle Free Awareness Week and the importance of not idling.

• Become the coordinating volunteer for your child’s school. Kits, including a training video, are available at www.idlefree.utah.gov. Once you have the school’s permission, you can use your imagination to make it fun, and the more that kids are involved the better the impact. “Be Idle Free” decals will be sent to the school office for volunteers to use, and Utah Moms will send parking signs ($40 value) to the first 10 volunteers who ask! Please email supermoms@utahmomsforcleanair.org with your name, mailing address and school/district when you are ready to take the plunge.

Reducing the exhaust from idling parked cars and trucks represents a small but important part of improving our air quality. School bus fleets, UTA buses, and private fleets will join us this year in learning to good low-idling techniques. Awareness Week can help everyone make not idling into a habit, so we can have better air quality all year.

EPA announces new limits on toxic air pollution from medical incinerators, ending legal battle

Provided by: Associated Press
Written by: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sep. 16, 2009

WASHINGTON – About 50 medical waste incinerators nationwide will have to reduce their air pollution under regulations announced Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA said the new rules, which require better monitoring and tighter emissions limits, will reduce toxic pollution from the burning of medical waste by 390,000 pounds annually and probably will result in no new incinerators being built.

Medical incinerators burn biological waste, needles, plastic gloves, batteries and other items. The resulting emissions account for only a fraction of the country’s air pollution, but it is a particularly toxic mix of heavy metals, acid gases and other contaminants.

The EPA estimates the cost to comply with the new regulations will be about $15.5 million per year.
The new standards settle a 1997 lawsuit brought by environmental groups that argued existing standards were too weak.

‘Gentlemen, ladies — Stop your engines’ by Judy Fahys, The Salt Lake Tribune. 05/28/2009.

‘Dutra debate draws crowd of 400′, by Martin Espinoza, Press Democrat, May 30, 2009.

‘Community Internet Radio Speaks With Utah Moms For Clean Air’, Utah Free Media, 6/29/2009.

‘Staying vigorous in Utah’s ozone season’, By Judy Fahys, The Salt Lake Tribune, 08/09/2009.

September 5, 2009
Countries could speed up their action against climate change if they tackled air pollution as well as carbon dioxide emissions, the UN Environment Program says.

UNEP executive director Achim Steiner says there’s strong evidence that the world’s climate is changing faster than initially expected, adding to the urgency for concrete measures against global warming.

“It is… becoming clear that the world must also deploy all available means to combat climate change,” Steiner said on Friday.

“At this critical juncture, every transformative measure and no substance contributing to climate change should be overlooked.”

Troubled negotiations on emissions targets in climate change talks are focusing on carbon dioxide, but scientists estimate that nearly 50 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions come from other compounds, according to UNEP.

The agency believes that national efforts to control the pollutants – such as black carbon or soot, low level ozone or smog, methane and nitrogen compounds – could simultaneously generate health and economic savings as well, and address other environmental concerns.

CO2 cuts and other international steps at the Copenhagen conference in December are the “over-arching concern”, Steiner said.

But countries could also take individual action to control air pollution from inefficient burning of wood, coal, diesel engines, methane emissions from agriculture and by tackling deforestation, officials underlined.

“There remains some scientific uncertainty about some of these pollutants’ precise contribution to global warming,” Steiner acknowledged.

“But a growing body of evidence points to a potentially significant role,” he added.

The air pollutants highlighted by UNEP also tend to have a shorter lifespan in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

Efforts to tackle them could have a swift impact in reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases, according to scientists.

© 2009 AFP