With RUFA coming up in just over a month and our poor air quality on our minds (and lungs) we checked in with David Sabados at RAQC about CO Air Quality and the Simple Steps Better Air program.
This is why we RUFA and why we #justskip2
Can you give us a brief overview of the SSBA program? Why did you start it and when?
Sometimes issues like air quality can seem too big or daunting for someone to have an impact, but the reality is we can all take simple steps in our daily lives that will have a meaningful impact. The Regional Air Quality Council launched its awareness, education and outreach program, Simple Steps. Better Air., in 2016-2017 with the aim of increasing public awareness around air quality in the Denver metropolitan area, and encouraging Coloradans to do what they can to improve our air. Ground-level ozone, the serious air pollution that you can’t see, smell, or taste, is a major concern in our region. One of the primary reasons for our work is that Metro Denver currently does not meet two federal air quality standards for ozone set by the EPA.
What’s the science behind it?
This is where it gets interesting because our geography and local climate actually work against us when it comes to ozone. The basics are that on a typical sunny, hot Colorado day when there’s little to no wind, certain gasses “cook” and form ground-level ozone pollution. The two main ingredients are nitrogen oxide (NOx) & volatile organic compounds (VOC) that emit or come from industrial plants and sites, gas-powered machines. Cars of course come to mind immediately, but smaller equipment like lawn mowers and leaf blowers have a serious impact too. There are some smaller, but notable sources, like household chemicals, paints and things like that. Those emissions all contribute to poor air quality. Unfortunately, where we sit geographically along the Front Range also means we get what’s called “background ozone” which is to say that other cities, states and sometimes countries gift us their ozone. It blows here and adds to the problem.
Why is ozone such a concern if it eventually clears out of our air?
It comes down to public health. Let’s say you’re a relatively healthy adult who runs outside on a high ozone day…you may feel your chest tighten or your throat burns and your eyes water…you go back inside and you might recover over the next hour or so. But physicians say there is a risk of developing serious respiratory and cardiovascular problems, including heart attack and stroke, if you’re breathing in ozone over and over again. According to Dr. Anthony Gerber at National Jewish Health, prolonged ozone exposure is directly linked to 10-20 deaths in Colorado each year. The overall health impacts are obviously much higher.
Which “simple step” makes the biggest difference? Why?
It’s like picking your favorite child, or family pet. Just to give your readers some context, “simple steps” are the actions our program encourages individuals to take to make a positive difference in air quality. I highly recommend heading to the “Simple Steps” page of our website SimpleStepsBetterAir.org to find an action that you can start to do regularly. So maybe that’s it, the biggest difference might come from our “Skip 2 trips each week” step - because it’s going to start to reframe things a bit in your mind. If you managed to walk or bike to a destination that you previously drove to, you discovered you can do it and it’s probably worth trying to do that more often. Pre-pandemic, we knew that if just 10% of drivers in the metro skipped two car trips each week, that would take nearly 200,000 vehicles off our roads every day. Traffic has more than rebounded, so the benefit of collectively reducing trips is pretty dramatic when it comes to lowering emissions and less ozone and greenhouse gas pollution.
How do we get more people to understand how important this is and join in?
I’ll focus on the second action - joining in. We are so excited that we continue to work with the Suffer Better community because the entire premise is to do more. An immediate way to join us is to sign up for our RUFA 2023 #JustSkip2 Challenge - we’re going to ask 15 participants to work with us to reduce their vehicle trips in the three weeks leading up to the February event. We’ll have folks answer very short weekly surveys so we know what you’re experiencing. After RUFA, we’ll get together to talk about what was easier than you thought, what really challenged you - and there will be prizes! It should be a lot of fun.
In the longer term, joining in could mean a number of things. It can be having a conversation with your family about how you’re going to try to skip a car trip twice a week in the summertime. It can be taking time to plan a little differently so that you don't drive alone to get to the place you’ll run or ride. It absolutely means knowing what puts our region’s air quality at risk and being inspired to make simple changes in your routine that reduce emissions. The “even more” is to sign up on WaytoGo.org to reduce vehicle trips and track the trips you take. What’s great is that you can see the difference you made right then and there, thanks to some helpful air benefit calculators.
Has the SSBA program actually made a difference?
In 2021, our research found awareness of air quality issues was as high as it had ever been since we began surveying the public in 2016. We work hard to communicate when there is poor air quality, sending out Ozone Action Alerts. The emphasis is on telling the public exactly what they should do to protect their health, and what specific action they can take to make a difference in air quality. Do we have work to do to influence more Coloradans to do something other than driving alone and adding to traffic and pollution? Without a doubt. We work with some fantastic partners that help us meet those objectives, and we’re really proud of where we’re headed.
What would you change?
With a magic wand and blank check? Swap out all gas powered cars in the metro area with EVs. Same for lawn mowers and small equipment. Improve mass transit so that most of us don’t need to drive frequently or at all. Convince all employers who have office jobs to allow some teleworking for people who are interested to eliminate commutes entirely.
None of these things will happen overnight, but honestly they are all things we’re working towards through programs like SSBA. Maybe you can’t buy an EV today, or just don’t like what’s on the market. That’s fine. We’ll help you think through trip reduction instead. Mass transit will only improve as people use it, so that's an incremental change as well. Again, we’re working on many of these things, but it takes time and voluntary participation from the public.
How many people in Denver have participated? What percentage of the population is that?
Like a lot of public awareness campaigns, it can be hard to gauge. If someone reads our website or an article we’re quoted in and then bikes to work the next day, they generally don’t tell us. We sent Ozone Action Alerts to a few thousand people throughout the summer and we have thousands more who engage with our sister programs like Mow Down Pollution, which offers vouchers for electric lawn mowers (a great simple step). Partnerships like this one let us reach into communities we otherwise may not get to know, so thank you for reading and sharing information with your friends and family to increase our reach even further.