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I am a mom of five kids and a mechanical engineer by degree, but I turned my focus to protecting public health and safety after becoming a mom. I am a Colorado organizer for Moms Clean Air Force, and I live a half mile from a recently fracked 18-well large-scale oil and gas development site.

My community is located along Colorado’s Front Range, where we struggle with problematic air inversions where cool nighttime air traps high levels of pollution up against the Rocky Mountains and impacts our air quality along Front Range communities like mine. The Denver Metro North Front Range is currently listed in “serious” nonattainment for ground-level ozone and is slated to soon be downgraded to “severe” nonattainment as we contend with ozone originating from oil and gas sector pollution in the DJ basin combined with elevated background ground-level ozone originating outside Colorado’s borders.

My region receives frequent “Ozone Action Alerts” indicating poor air quality conditions exist in which residents should not exercise outdoors, we should work from home, and do anything we can to reduce NOx emissions. Since ozone is formed when NOx and VOCs mix in the presence of sunlight, it is equally important that the oil and gas sector must also reduce VOC emissions in an effort to reduce ground-level ozone to safe levels.

The oil and gas industry is one of the nation’s largest sources of industrial methane pollution. Oil and gas companies leak and vent methane into the atmosphere when they extract, store, and transport oil and gas throughout the supply chain.

As Colorado has experienced the detrimental effects of air pollution and climate change, we have been forced to contend with the negative impacts of oil and gas extraction. As such, Colorado has continued to lead the nation on strict methane regulations, and even with these enhanced regulations, oil and gas production is still viable in our state. We have already increased wellbore integrity, enhanced programs for leak detection and repair, prohibited the practice of routine venting and flaring (except for in emergency situations), begun the process of replacing pneumatic controllers with non-methane-emitting alternatives, and are currently working on methods to require legacy wells that emit pollution, but produce very little, to finally be properly plugged and abandoned. These same enhanced regulations to reduce methane emissions can be effectively implemented across the country, just as they have been here in Colorado.

I am concerned about the impacts of climate change. Last year, Colorado experienced the three worst wildfires in our state’s history, which impacted air quality across the state, and Colorado remains in severe drought on the western slope. Colorado relies on our winter snowpack for our water supply. These impacts are serious, and we must reduce our pollution now.

I am also concerned about the health impacts stemming from air pollution. When methane is released during oil and gas operations, co-pollutants are also released, including carcinogens such as benzene. Benzene can worsen asthma, affect lung development in children, and increases the risk of cancer, immune system damage, and neurological, reproductive, and developmental problems.

Air pollution can travel long distances and harm people's health, but the communities, like mine, that live near oil and gas operations are exposed to higher levels of harmful air pollution that put our health at risk—especially our children, pregnant women, older adults, and those with underlying conditions, as well as disproportionately impacted communities, which most often include people of color and low-income communities.

I have always had rhinitis and over the last few years I’ve developed mild asthma which is triggered on high pollution days. We commute to school and nursery by bike and the kids are in a trailer. When we have to cycle behind buses or old cars it is very difficult to breathe and the boys really dislike it. I wish we had much cleaner air, proper cycling infrastructure so that kids and adults can safely commute without putting their health at risk and without having to sit behind idling cars and buses at every traffic light or junction.

The older adults have witnessed the transformation of their village from an ecologically and economically sustainable place to a concrete jungle resulting from industries, mostly Thermal Power Plants. We live in a pitiable condition in this gas chamber, which is being constantly infused with toxic pollutants from the industrial emissions. Constantly, we get the pungent smell from the river due to the release of effluents from the companies and domestic sewage water into it.

The dust particles from the company get deposited on our houses. If we dry our clothes on the terrace, the dust from the company gets deposited on those clothes, and the shiny substances resemble what we can find inside firecrackers.

The poor ambient air quality in this region has adversely affected the health status of the people residing here. The sulphur smell released from Kothari fertilizers causes throat irritation and breathing problems, etc.

Children are at very high risk of diseases caused by air pollution because their bodies are still developing and their system is not yet strong enough to protect them from the adverse effect of pollution. Children are exposed to air pollution on two fronts, those in urban areas are exposed to polluted air from vehicles, plants, factories etc. And the ones in rural and suburban areas have to breathe in smoke from burning bushes to that which comes from their mother’s kitchen which is characterized by cooking with firewood. Smug and smoke filled skies have created such inconvenience in breathing for people in cities and regions that are affected by it.

There have been numerous reports about what a disaster air pollution poses for us all and most importantly, how many children will also lose their lives due to the fact that they have been denied clear blue skies and healthy air due to the activities of adults. Most developing cities in Africa chokes under clouds of pollution, it pulls down commerce and drags up the cost of healthcare. Electricity supply in most parts of Nigeria is epileptic and the people have come up with a saying “electricity is just here to support the generators”, a complete opposite of why generators have been created. Gas emitted from generators are very dangerous as they are greenhouse gases but almost every household in the country use generators on a daily basis.

Clean air is a fundamental human right and every child deserves to view the blue skies without any obstruction of their view from snug or smoke covering the atmosphere. Climate friendly policies by policy makers and signed into law by the government will go a long way in purifying the air we breathe. Governments especially in parts of Africa and most parts of Asia also has to also put in place air quality measures and cleaning mechanisms in place. Tree planting automatically gets the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere as they act as carbon sinks. Taking public transport, carpooling, using bicycles and taking walks will certainly reduce our carbon footprints.

We must rethink our sources of energy, we are long overdue in our transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy like solar, wind and geothermal. An available future is a sustainable one but we will even have the right to dream of a future once we have eco-friendly transportation, start erecting more green buildings and help poor societies get clean energy like briquettes and biochar for cooking. People must be encouraged to have indoor plants to help mitigate indoor pollution and plant more trees around their houses and living spaces. A society is evaluated based on how they treat their young and if we allow our children to keep dying from air pollution that they haven’t caused, then that tells just what kind of a person we are.

Via letmebreathe.in

meu filho e eu temos problemas agravados pela rinite e meu filho tem asma sazonal causado pelo clima.