The Pittsburgh Foundation

Heinz leads clean air initiative

Campaign for Clean Air

The Breathe Project – a clean air initiative led by The Heinz Endowments and supported by The Pittsburgh Foundation – is a coalition of residents, businesses, government and many other groups in southwestern Pennsylvania that are working together for the health of our families and the regional economy.

Despite improvements over the past few decades, our region’s air still ranks among the worst in the nation, exacerbating asthma and causing other serious health problems in our communities such as higher rates of heart disease and lung cancer. But there are solutions. If you care about the air you breathe, we invite you to join us. Our lives – and way of life – depend on clean air. Visit the website at: www.breatheproject.org.

The Heinz Endowments has established the Clean Air Fund at The Pittsburgh Foundation to fund the campaign and its on-going initiatives.  The news release follows.

 

REGIONAL AIR CLEAN-UP COALITION FORMED

Industry, Government, Environmental Nonprofits Among Southwestern Pa. Sectors Leading The Breathe Project
Heinz Endowments’ multi-million-dollar science research and public awareness effort spurs action for significant improvement in air quality  

Pittsburgh, Oct. 27, 2011 – Invoking the unifying spirit of an industry-government-labor-citizen coalition in the late 1940s that rid the Pittsburgh region of terrible visible air pollution, a new coalition has formed to take on a similar mission: ridding the air of invisible pollutants that are harming residents’ health and the region’s economy.     

Forty organizations – ranging from United States Steel Corp. to the Group Against Smog and Pollution to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Western Pennsylvania Chapter – along with hundreds of individuals across the region have signed on to the Breathe Project. The multi-million dollar research, public awareness and action campaign was initiated by The Heinz Endowments with the goal of raising the region’s air quality from the ranks of the worst in the country to the ranks of the best.

“The Breathe Project Coalition is a breath of fresh air for people, the environment and the economy,” Endowments President Robert Vagt said before announcing its formation and future plans at a public event today at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. “We expect both the numbers of organizations and individuals joining the coalition at www.breatheproject.org to increase significantly as word spreads,” he said.

Dennis Yablonsky, CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, welcomed the Breathe Project effort and predicted that the inclusive and forward-thinking approach would bring many other members into the effort. “We were founded in 1944 to lead the effort to clean up the air and water during Pittsburgh’s first renaissance, so it’s entirely appropriate that we be part of this new effort and that we help bring parties together to continue to work on the air quality issue.”

The Endowments spent several years funding new air quality research, surveying the public and leadership sectors and planning an extensive public awareness-building effort. One of the science studies found that despite significant improvement during the past three decades, the region still has some of the most polluted air in the country, and its residents are at much higher risk for a range of serious health problems.

While the findings on the extent and effect of the problem are sobering, the implication of a key conclusion, that much of the region’s poor air quality is due to in-state sources, is that local communities have the power to make changes that could lead to significant improvement in air quality for two serious pollutants – small particulate matter and ozone.

“The prevalence of these pollutants in our region causes a great deal of illness and health care utilization,” said Dr. Fernando Holguin, director of the Pediatric Environmental Health Center at Children’s Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “It is one of many factors that can lead to respiratory conditions and other serious health problems, but if the Breathe Project is successful in improving air quality, it will be a huge contribution to the health of so many people.”

Although the Endowments has been working on the air pollution problem for more than a decade, Vagt said it became clear after a recent assessment of grant making that not enough progress has been made. “This broad and diverse coalition is a fantastic response and the Breathe Project promises to be a strong force for improvement.”

Key coalition members will lead an upcoming public convening to set goals, develop a process for implementing solutions and measure improvement in air quality. Many coalition members already are involved in significant air quality improvement efforts – among them:

 
  • U.S. Steel Corp.’s $1.1 billion pollution-control upgrade at its Clairton operations;
  • The Endowments’ and Port Authority Transit’s collaboration resulting in bike racks being installed on all buses in the fleet;
  • The City of Pittsburgh’s new 10-Year Clean Diesel Policy, which sets forth target dates for conversion of city-owned diesel-powered vehicles and the adoption of standards for best available retrofit technology for city-owned equipment, along with its adoption of a Clean Construction Equipment ordinance requiring contractors at large city-subsidized construction projects to install similar devices on their diesel equipment.
  • A pollution remediation agreement between McConway & Torley, a Lawrenceville-based foundry; and the Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP);
  • A partnership between EQT Corp. and PAT to study the possibility of converting the entire public transit fleet to natural gas.

In addition to monitoring these on-going activities, coalition members will be part of Endowments-sponsored education efforts designed to inspire and lead to more effective air quality improvement. One of these is a planned summit of mayors of cities across the country who have helped lead air quality improvement campaigns similar to the Breathe Project. These include Boston, New York City, Houston, San Diego, Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley near San Francisco.

As the coalition moves forward with its work, a region-wide public education and engagement effort begun September 18 will continue across traditional and new media, including TV, radio, newspapers, and social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

“The public awareness effort is so needed and a great contribution to the health of future generations in our communities,” said Dr. Deborah Gentile, director of research for Allegheny General Hospital’s Center for Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. “Forty years of research proves we can create jobs while we cut pollution, save lives, improve quality of life and save huge sums on health care.”

All the messaging carries a standing invitation to the Breathe Project’s interactive website, www.breatheproject.org, where visitors can learn more about pollution sources in their communities, check out upcoming events and read about individual and group actions that can be taken to reduce air pollution. In addition, people can upload their own stories of personal experience with the air pollution problem or offer ideas on solutions.

“I didn’t think one person could do anything that would really make a difference,” said Peter Bartholomew, a junior at the Creative and Performing Arts High School in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. In his BreatheProject.org story, Bartholomew talks about dealing with chronic asthma for years. He would often complain about his condition, but two years ago, he acted on his mother’s advice that complaining about a problem isn’t nearly as satisfying as rolling up your sleeves and working toward a solution.

Bartholomew helped lead a campaign to convince the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education to pass a new policy requiring diesel retrofits on its entire school bus fleet. “There are still a lot of things that have to be done for us to have the clean air we all want,” Bartholomew said. “But each step gets us closer to that goal.”

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