GASPalerts: October 24, 2008
Events
16th Annual Pennsylvania Community Forestry Council Conference: Healthy Trees - Healthy Communities
November 13 -14
Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA
Fee: $100 for both days or $75 for one day.
Register online at http://www.pittsburghforest.org/communityforestryconference
Contact: Danielle Crumrine, Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest at 412-362-6360 or danielle@pittsburghforest.org or Mark Remcheck, Extension Educator, Urban Forestry Allegheny County Cooperative Extension at 412-473-2540 or mar15@psu.edumar15@psu.edu
View the Conference Brochure
Tree commission members, arborists, architects and landscape architects, municipal DPW staff, students, educators, elected officials, and anyone who cares about creating healthy & sustainable communities should attend this conference. Featured keynote speakers include: Thomas Hylton, President, Save our Land, Save our Towns, Inc. (Day 1) and Ray Tretheway, Executive Director, The Sacramento Tree Foundation (Day 2).
Rachel Carson Homestead Association’s 33rd Annual Meeting
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
5:30-8:00pm
PNC Firstside, Firstside Café
More information
Hear remarks by Devra L. Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H., Director, Center for Environmental Oncology, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.
Members of the ground-breaking Clean Air Partnership, Carlisle Regional Medical Center, The Sentinel, and the Clean Air Board of Central Pennsylvania invite you to the public unveiling of the Met One BAM-1020 EPA certified air quality monitor.
Date: Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008
Time: 4:00 to 6:00PM with ceremony at 5:00PM
Where: The Sentinel
457 E. North Street
Carlisle, PA, 17013.
Light refreshments will be served.
The Clean Air Partnership was formed to protect the health of residents living, working, studying and playing in Cumberland County by providing them with information that will allow them to make informed decisions. You will be able to view the BAM-1020 monitor and hear a presentation of how it measures the toxic particles called PM2.5 which are so small, several thousand could fit on the period at the end of this sentence.
The monitor, through the generosity of the Carlisle Regional Medical Center and The Sentinel, will transmit both the daily readings in The Sentinel newspaper and the hourly updated readings on their website (www.cumberlink.com). The information transmitted from the main office of The Sentinel will give residents actionable data to help them plan outdoor activities.
Please join us to celebrate the Clean Air Partnership and our efforts to attain clean air.
Contacts:
CRMC: Cindy Small at Cindy.Small@hma.com
The Sentinel Mark Blum at MBlum@cumberlink.com
CAB Jennifer McKenna at Jennifer7813@aol.com
Take Action
The Allegheny County Council will be accepting public testimony on the Allegheny County Health Department’s (ACHD’s) 2009 budget. Details are as follows:
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Beginning at 4:00 p.m.
County Courthouse, Fourth Floor Gold Room
TO REGISTER TO TESTIFY: Contact Chief Clerk John Mascio (JMascio@county.allegheny.pa.us or 412-350-6495) no later than noon on Tuesday, 10/28. Each speaker is limited to three minutes; please bring a written copy of your comments for public record.
We all know that the ACHD is operating on a shoe string, but did you know?…
- The Pittsburgh area has the worst short-term particle pollution (soot) in the nation (American Lung Association, 2008).
- Pittsburgh has been ranked worst in a fifty city survey for maternal smoking (Annie E Casey Foundation, 2000).
- Each food inspector in the county is responsible for checking up on 469 restaurants and establishments (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/12/2008).
- The life expectancy for Black males in Allegheny County is 69.4 years; the life expectancy for White males is 75.1 years (Health Status of African Americans in Allegheny County, 2002).
- The ACHD staff have decreased more than 30 percent since 2000, from 427 to about 357 employees (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/6/2008).
- Almost two-thirds of the staff at the ACHD are over 50 years old and approaching retirement (ACHD, 12/11/2007).
Please testify on Wednesday, October 29 and help make public health a priority among policymakers! Working on the front lines of public health, you know that the ACHD does not have the resources it needs to conduct the basic functions of a health department, let alone respond to evolving public health challenges. The hardworking staff at the ACHD and its partner agencies need more resources to effectively promote health and prevent disease. Please share why YOU think we need to strengthen our local public health infrastructure and invest in the health of ALL of our communities.
Are you concerned about air pollution in your community? It’s not too late to join GASP’s Pollution Patrol Team
Air Resources
1. The GASPer Air Monitor is available for use by teachers and students during the 2008-09 school year. The monitor measures ozone, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and several other components in the air. Included, is the use of our hand-held particulate monitor as well. Make air tangible! For more information or to sign up for the program contact Lee Szymkiewicz at lee@gasp-pgh.org or 412-325-7382.
2. Join the network of women who, like you, want to change the way we influence our environment. Women for a Healthy Environment educates and empowers women about environmental risks so that they can make healthy choices for themselves and their families…Check out their website and join.
Air Quality News
Donora remembers killer smog — http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/teenscene/s_594093.html
“The fog rolled in Tuesday, a gray blanket hanging over the Monongahela Valley in the days before Halloween 1948.
No one in Donora thought much of it. Foggy days were common in the Mon river town…”