I ran across some interesting information at The American Lung Association web site about the state of air quality.

There were several things that jumped out at me right away.

• First, Lowndes County doesn’t even have a device for monitoring ozone levels. We need to get one.
• Second, on particulate emissions, Lowndes County gets a “B”. Fulton County gets an “F”, Dekalb gets an “F”, Cobb gets “D” and Clayton gets “C”. Horrifyingly, Douglas, Fayette, Henry and Rockdale Counties don’t even have particulate monitors.
• Third, over one third of the population of Lowndes County falls into the two vulnerable categories of “Over 65” or “Under 18”.

Do the leaders of our area really want us to be like the Atlanta area? Do we want to poison our children, our parents and our grandparents with dirty air? Dirty air leads to both lung and cardiovascular disease.

What are a few of things we could do to keep our air clean?

• We could transition to clean energy sources like solar.
• We could develop public transportation.
• We could become active in our community and attend public meetings to let our leaders know what issues are important to us and that we want to be involved in decisions regarding development, industry and environmental stewardship.

-Gretchen