May is Bike Month but it is also National Clean Air Month

We are still in May but since it’s Bike Month, we decided to post two blogs to celebrate! This is your dutiful council member blogger, Nora, here to share the wonders of May with you. As a pedestrian advocate, I have learned that transportation touches so much more than just our roads and paths. By creating a more bikeable environment we improve health, provide more affordable means of transportation, improve the health of the environment, and so much more. Transportation, especially biking, has a positive impact on so many sectors of our lives. Today, I am going to talk about one of those sectors– decreased emissions, and we know we aren’t the only youth group to believe this.

May is Bike Month but it is also National Clean Air Month. Clean Air Month was started by the American Lung Association in 1972 as a week-long event and later initiated the enactment of The Clean Air Act, one of the first pieces of environmental protection legislation. This month allows for reflection on how we can improve air quality both indoors and outdoors. Now in DC as in other places another contributor to air quality is pollen especially during cherry blossom season. As someone who is from Georgia, pollen usually doesn’t phase me but the pollen in DC is on a whole different level. Although the flowers are very nice to look at. However, pollen is not a malicious emission but carbon is. Part of the focus of Clean Air Month is to reduce our carbon footprints and one of the ways you can celebrate both Clean Air Month and Bike Month is to bike to work because vehicles are the biggest air polluters.

Clean air is not just good for the environment, it’s good for all of our health, as poor air quality can contribute to cancer, bronchitis, allergies, and asthma. An easy way to see the effects of poor air quality is by looking at sunsets, heavy orange and red sunsets show that there are a lot of particles in the air either from fires, volcanoes, or pollution. These particles trap the light allowing for the longer wavelengths such as red and orange to show in the dusk sky. But every individual can do something about it! How are you participating in Clean Air Month, Brian? How do your sunsets on the West Coast look?

To see the air quality of where you live click here.