What is the hold up?  Pittsburgh’s clean construction legislation (formally known as the Clean Air Act of 2010) passed back in July of 2011, yet there still is no regulation implementing the law.  The law requires projects receiving at least $250,000 in public subsidies to spend a prorated percentage on cleaner construction equipment, ensuring that construction in Pittsburgh will get progressively cleaner. This regulation was supposed to be written within six months of passage of the legislation.  Beginning January 1, 2013, the legislation became effective for off-road diesel equipment operating on the project site.  How are contractors to comply effectively when the regulations that implement the law haven’t yet been written? Contact the Mayor’s office and urge swift creation and enforcement of the clean construction regulation. While Pittsburgh’s air quality has come a long way from the smoky city images of yore, we still have a long way to go to achieve truly healthy air.  And one component of cleaning the air is minimizing diesel emissions.  This includes emissions from construction vehicles, which make up nearly a quarter of our diesel pollution problem in the region.  Diesel pollution creates serious public health hazards.  Diesel exhaust contains many toxic air pollutants, carcinogens, ozone-forming elements, and fine particulate matter. The construction industry uses more diesel engines than any other sector, and according to the Environmental Protection Agency, it generates roughly 32% of all land-based non-road oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions and more than 37% of land-based particulate matter 10 micrometers or less in size (PM10).  Exposure to fine particles causes asthma attacks, heart attacks, lung cancer, strokes, and premature deaths.  The good news is that emission controls called diesel particulate filters (DPFs), combined with the use of widely available ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel (ULSD), can eliminate more than 90 percent of fine particles from a heavy-duty truck or piece of construction equipment. Poor air quality created by diesel emissions especially impacts those who are more vulnerable to air pollution, such as our children and the elderly.  Construction workers are also more at-risk, as they receive the most potent, toxic dose of diesel emissions since they work around the air pollution- spewing equipment each day. A major study of health risks from diesel pollution from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health underscores the need to reduce diesel emissions.  The study examined the public health risks of diesel pollution by looking at 12,000 mining industry workers exposed to diesel particles, and found an astonishing three-fold increased risk of both lung cancer and premature mortality among this study sample. Furthermore, the researchers found that lifetime exposure to diesel exhaust in some U.S. urban areas with high levels of diesel pollution could carry similar risks.  According to the study, other workers who are continuously exposed to diesel exhaust are particularly at risk, such as the 1.8 million heavy truck drivers and 460,000 heavy construction equipment operators in this country as estimated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2008. To assist small contractors in covering the cost of retrofitting their equipment, the Allegheny County Health Department and the Heinz Endowments established the Small Construction Contractor Retrofit Program.  This program is currently accepting applications from contractors who primarily work in Allegheny County or Pittsburgh. As if grant funding hasn’t made utilizing clean construction equipment attractive enough, the US Green Building Council just announced a “Clean Construction” pilot credit to their LEED Pilot Credit Library.  Read more here. We need your help today in urging the Mayor’s Office to get the clean construction regulation written, so that the contractors and construction companies have all the information they need to comply with the law.  The health of our residents, and our city’s air quality—and image—depend on it. #constructionequipment #particulatepollution #diesel #emissions #CleanConstruction #NationalCancerInstitute #dieselemissions #airquality

Curious how air quality regulators come up with plans to combat air pollution, and how they know that the plans will work?  The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) is pulling back the curtain for two hours to discuss its plan to reduce fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in our region. From ACHD: The “Citizens Air Modeling Workshop on New PM2.5 State Implementation Plan (SIP)” will be held on Tuesday, January 8, 2013 from 5 PM to 7 PM in the ACHD-AQP building #7, first-floor conference room. The workshop will give attendees a better understanding of the air-quality modeling performed for the new PM2.5 SIP, and will explain the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extensions (CAMx) model and the Plume-in-Grid (PiG) component of the CAMx model description of modeling inputs (emissions, meteorology, grids, discrete receptors, et al), additional models used to represent air-quality conditions, and review of calculations necessary to the modeling effort.  Attendees are encouraged to contact Tony Sadar at ACHD (412-578-8125, asadar@achd.net) if they need further details. #airpollution #PM25SIP #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #ACHD #airquality

GASP rang in the new year by delivering comments on Pennsylvania’s potential changes to its low RVP gasoline requirement for the Pittsburgh-Beaver Valley Area.  Fun, right? Due to our high levels of ozone in the region, we must use a type of gasoline in the warmer months that is less likely to evaporate–meaning less air pollution. Recently, certain lawmakers and industry groups have pushed this requirement onto the chopping block, but in these comments, we explain why the clean gas rules should be kept–and why the state is legally obligated to do so as well. #airpollution #cleangasrules #RVPgasolinerequirement

The Marcellus Shale industry boomed in the last few years, and Southwestern Pennsylvania has been a center of that activity. For some people here, the boom was literal: the first warning many residents and even emergency personnel had that a well had been drilled near the popular Pittsburgh Mills shopping area was a giant fireball blazing on a plateau overlooking the stores, flaring off emissions from the well. The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) is proposing a new notification regulation to make certain that never happens again. The proposal requires industry to inform ACHD when ‘milestones’ occur at a well site, which are activities in the drilling and extraction process that could produce high emissions.  Inspectors can go to the right place, at the right time.  They can sample the air while a well is being fracked, or monitor a flare’s opacity to ensure that pollutants are properly controlled. We’ve worked with ACHD on getting some protections in place that go beyond the state minimums.  It’s good to see ACHD being proactive.  Some of our political leaders are pushing for more drilling in Allegheny County.  Having these rules in place before that happens will be extremely helpful. Comments on the notification system will be taken until Dec. 3.  GASP recently published a Handbook that explains air pollution laws, common Marcellus pollutants, and the commenting process. Access the Handbook here: http://j.mp/MsHbk. More information from ACHD on how to comment on this proposal can be found at http://j.mp/V4uuv3. The notification rules themselves are available at http://j.mp/RgEFRJ. #airpollution #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #MarcellusShale

On Thursday, Dec. 6, come hear from experts from across the region speak on the links between indoor air quality and the triple bottom line. Attend this workshop, the third in the “Champions for Sustainability” Air Quality Workshop Series, to learn actions relating to air quality that you can put into practice to help improve productivity, health, wellness, and effectiveness of employees in the workplace. This program features a presentation on the benefits of knowing about daily air quality forecasts as well as practical advice on improving both ambient and indoor air quality including: using plants, preventing sick building syndrome, creating smoke-free and fragrance-free work environments, and choosing building systems that provide fresh air. Regional companies that have been leading the way in building their corporate culture to improve employee health, morale, and productivity through better air quality will share their experiences. Who should attend? Human resource managers, corporate sustainability coordinators, company green team members and leaders, building operators, and any employees from all sectors who are interested in learning ways to improve their work environments, increase their health and wellness, increase productivity through improved air quality. More information, the agenda, and registration info here. #airquality #ChampionsforSustainability

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has scheduled a hearing on the Shamrock Compressor Station in Fayette County for Tuesday, Nov. 13.  At 6:30 PM, an hour-long open house will begin, followed by time for public comments to be taken. To present testimony, click here for instructions. To better understand the changes being proposed, click here to review pertinent permit documents. The rapid development of the Marcellus Shale natural gas play in Pennsylvania has raised many concerns about the impact the industry will have on the air quality specifically, and the environment and the health generally of those living near natural gas facilities. Our new Citizens Handbook was created to inform citizens about air pollution resulting from natural gas drilling and production, describe how these emissions are controlled through the permitting process, and explain how individuals can “comment” on these permits before they are finalized.  Commenting gives individuals or organizations an opportunity to voice their concerns and helps to ensure that the final permit adequately controls emissions. Read the Citizen Handbook and have your voice heard! #publichearing #airpollution #ShamrockCompressorStation #MarcellusShale #airquality

Here’s a look at the Allegheny County Health Department’s revised Air Toxics Guidlines proposal. These guidelines were modified based on further input received from various stakeholders.  The guidelines will be voted on by the Board of Health on November 7th.  The meeting starts at 12:30 and will be held in the 1st floor conference room of Building 7, at 39th Street and Penn Avenue in Lawrenceville. Please contact us for more information or questions about the guidelines, or meet us there–we’re hoping for a large turnout to show the Health Department that the citizens are demanding updated guidelines. #airtoxics #AlleghenyCountyBoardofHealth #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #Lawrenceville

The rapid development of the Marcellus Shale natural gas play in Pennsylvania has raised many concerns about the impact the industry will have on the environment and the health of those living near natural gas facilities. The purpose of this handbook is to inform citizens about air pollution resulting from natural gas drilling and production, describe how these emissions are controlled through the permitting process, and explain how individuals can “comment” on these permits before they are finalized. Commenting gives individuals or organizations an opportunity to voice their air quality and other concerns and helps to ensure that the final permit adequately controls emissions. Read the Citizen Handbook and have your voice heard! #airpollution #airpermits #emissions #publiccomments #MarcellusShale #airquality

Like in any urban area with a large number of vehicles, Pittsburgh breathers suffer from diesel air pollution.  Trucks, trains, boats, buses, and construction equipment all emit exhaust that contains ultrafine particles small enough to avoid the body’s defense systems and travel straight into the bloodstream.  This type of air pollution is linked to cancers, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory illnesses, and premature deaths. GASP hopes to get a handle on the region’s diesel pollution with the help of local residents.  Concerned about dirty diesel and its effect on your local air quality?  If you have a bicycle or a smartphone, you can help collect data that will identify hotspots of diesel pollution in the region, whether due to high levels of diesel activity or individual companies with dirty fleets. We need the help of cyclists to complete a reliable map of particulate matter in Pittsburgh.  Volunteers will strap air pollution monitors to the front of their bikes and gather data as they ride.  We’ll get a close-up picture of the type of air quality cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists are encountering on their commutes.  This will help us pinpoint areas of concentrated air pollution. The bike monitoring project was made possible by a grant from Google, which has many cycling commuters at their Bakery Square office in Pittsburgh.  We’ll overlay the air data onto Google Maps, so Pittsburghers can see potential air pollution problem areas.  To learn more or to volunteer for the project, visit gasp-pgh.org/projects/bam/. GASP is also launching a less physically challenging project aimed at capturing diesel information. Smartphone owners can now send pictures of smoking diesel vehicles straight to GASP.  The photos pop up on a map.  Anyone can see the photos and map, and anyone can contribute pictures.  We’ll quickly get a sense of which companies show up a lot in the images, and which streets generate a lot of complaints.  GASP will follow up with the worst offenders to see what the problem is.  It’s hard to argue with a hundred pictures. The project is part of “SENSR,” which came out of the Living Environments Lab at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).  Sunyoung Kim, a Ph.D candidate in Human-Computer Interaction Institute at CMU who developed the SENSR app, explains “as researchers and social activists, we explore ways to promote grassroots efforts and activism through technology.   SENSR particularly focuses on lowering technical barriers for citizen science to easily make use of mobile and computing technologies.  We hope that our efforts can help foster grassroots participation for our everyday life, health, and well-being.” For more information and to participate, download the SENSR app and choose “Dirty Diesels.”  You can also view the project and other citizen science projects at www.sensr.org. These two programs allow concerned citizens to directly participate in making a difference in Pittsburgh’s air quality.  They’re easy and fun to use, and don’t require a big-time commitment.  A few minutes pushing a few buttons helps us better quantify our diesel problem.  The more ways for citizens to have a say in their communities, the better.  Help us fight for better air quality in Pittsburgh. #airpollution #BakerySquare #LivingEnvironmentsLab #diesel #emissions #particlepollution #dieselemissions #airquality

This weekend, GASP has two great events lined up for you. Saturday, October 6, is the South Side Slopes StepTrek 2012.  Pittsburgh has the most public steps of any city in the nation, and the Slopes has the most of any Pittsburgh neighborhood.  Come see what’s at the tops of the hills and in the bottom of the valleys, in the company of hundreds of other curious StepTrekkers. Expect many scenic views, beautiful churches, and shady, half-secret passages on these walks.  GASP will be at the Marketplace at the start and finish of the event, giving out free pedometers so you can count every last step you put in.  StepTrek is from 11 AM to 4 PM.  Visit the SSS Neighborhood Association web site for more details. Then on Sunday, October 7, GASP is leading another hike with Venture Outdoors, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and the Audubon Society.  We’ll be taking an easy stroll for several miles through Frick Park, learning about all the native and non-native species around us, the history of the park, and how air quality can affect athletes’ health. This air quality hike goes from 1 to 4 PM.  Learn more and sign up at the Venture Outdoors site. #airquality #FrickPark #hike #VentureOutdoors