Our kids choke as leaders do nothing

By Rebecca Watts Hull

Last month, metro Atlanta’s children headed back to school. As they boarded buses, hopped in cars, walked and rode their bikes to school, what were they breathing? Despite a relatively cool, wet summer, the first weeks of August brought four additional “code orange” smog days, bringing our summer total to 13 days. If not for the recent cold front, that number would almost certainly have been higher. We continue to struggle with air pollution, not just in Atlanta, but in our other major cities such as Macon, Columbus and Augusta. We raise our children in this unhealthy environment, with levels of ozone and soot pollution that we know harm their growing bodies, restrict their athletic abilities and shorten their lives.

Traffic accounts for at least half of Atlanta’s ozone problem and about one-third of our soot pollution. In addition to unhealthy air quality, more and more studies show the serious negative impacts of car and truck exhaust on children’s growth and development.

● The longest-running U.S. investigation of air pollution and children’s health finds a 30 percent higher risk of developing asthma among children exposed to high levels of traffic pollution.

● Yale University researchers confirm that soot from heavy cars and trucks trigger wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath in children with asthma.

● A New Jersey study links in utero exposure to traffic exhaust with lower birth weight, and a New York City study finds an association between a chemical in diesel pollution and lower IQ. A study of children living within three-tenths of a mile of a freeway showed that their lung development suffers. More than 30 percent of our nation’s public schools are located in that “danger zone.”

Georgia’s children are growing up with regular, unhealthy doses of car and truck exhaust. Georgia’s transportation leaders have failed to implement a comprehensive transit plan and a freight and passenger rail network for Georgia. The Georgia Legislature has refused to give citizens the right to choose to raise funds for more transit. It has refused to give MARTA the ability to operate efficiently with a safely maintained fleet. The fiscal consequences of these failures are lost opportunities for federal funding, and lost business and job opportunities for our lagging economy.

While our business leaders have tried to build an economic case for why Georgia needs an efficient, multimodal transportation network, our state still continues to slip behind Tennessee and North Carolina. Our neighbors are poised to take advantage of federal funding for high-speed rail, thanks to state laws passed this year. But not Georgia. Forget for a moment the economic impact, the inconvenience and the frustration that result from Georgia’s outdated, car-dependent transportation system.

The missing piece in this conversation is the impact of our transportation problems on the health of our families — lost days at work and school, and millions of dollars spent on emergency room visits and hospitalizations. Every delay, every excuse for failing to reduce traffic pollution comes with a human cost. How long will we make our kids wait for clean air?

Rebecca Watts Hull is program manager for Mothers & Others for Clean Air at the Georgia Conservancy.