Back to school with a code orange smog alert

By Rebecca Watts Hull

For the past couple of weeks, metro Atlanta families and educators have been working hard to ensure a smooth transition back to school.

With all the challenges of this transition, from scheduling snags to first-day jitters, who has time to pay attention to smog alerts?

Last week Atlanta had its longest string of consecutive “code orange” forecasts this summer, with warnings of unhealthy concentrations of ground-level ozone issued nearly every day last week. Educators had to make tough decisions about children exercising outdoors with both heat advisories and smog alerts in effect.

With many school sports and physical activity taking place outside in the late afternoon when ozone is at its worst, Atlanta’s air pollution problem adds another layer of concern for teachers, coaches and parents.

Physicians describe the effects of ozone as “sunburn on the lungs.” Exercising in code orange conditions can make the difference between a great day at school and a trip to the emergency room. Otherwise healthy kids are vulnerable, with a greater risk than usual of developing asthma as the result of outdoor exercise in high ozone conditions.

While ozone levels have come down over the past 30 years, at the same time studies reveal harm at lower and lower concentrations. A recent Emory study found that pediatric emergency visits for asthma rise with levels of ozone and traffic pollution well below the thresholds that trigger code orange. As a result, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing those limits and is expected to announce a tighter standard for ozone at the end of August.

So what’s a parent to do? Short term, parents can make sure their child’s school is monitoring air quality and moving outdoor activity indoors during peak ozone hours when necessary. All metro Atlanta schools have clear guidelines developed by Mothers & Others for Clean Air’s Health Advisory Task Force about changing the time of day, location, or intensity of physical activity when a smog alert is in effect.

Long term, let’s set a goal for back-to-school 2011 — no more bad air days. Parents, teachers and coaches need the flexibility to encourage healthy physical activity without worrying what the air is doing to the children in their care.

How do we get there?

Schools and parents can help:

● Clean up those dirty diesel buses: Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division will offer $5.4 million in federal funds (no match required) to metro Atlanta school systems this fall to put pollution control devices on the buses, pulling out as much as 85 percent of the harmful soot kids are breathing. Every eligible school system should apply for these funds.

● Adopt a no-idle policy for both buses and cars: Georgia’s Department of Education has a great policy for school buses. Ask your school system to adopt and enforce it.

● Try “walking school buses” and “bike trains” where one parent accompanies a group of kids for a great start to the day and to reduce pollution.

But parents and schools cannot do it all. Many neighborhoods lack sidewalks, bike lanes and ready access to public transit. Cars and trucks are the biggest source of Atlanta’s air pollution. Georgia’s leaders should:

● Prioritize transit, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure: Thanks to a bill passed in the 2010 General Assembly, metro Atlanta residents soon will have the opportunity to vote on a one-penny sales tax to fund transportation projects. Elected officials will choose the list of projects in the referendum. Improving air quality should be a top priority for project selection.

● Clean up dirty diesel engines: Atlanta has some of the heaviest freight corridors in the country, and residents pay the price with their health. Efforts to expand freight transport should be matched with equally enthusiastic diesel engine clean-up initiatives.

Let’s work now to send our kids back to school in 2011 with code green.

Rebecca Watts Hull, a mother of two in Decatur, is director of Mothers & Others for Clean Air.