Air Health Our Health AirHealthOurHealth

Tobacco control and climate advocacy collide in today’s episode, just as we are all getting ready to head into summer fun in the Great Outdoors! Sadly, the tobacco industry is spoiling our summer fun in many ways. Today I am joined by Amanda Simpson , who is a policy analyst with the Environmental Justice in Tobacco Control Project of the Sierra Club to help us understand the issue.  From causing wildfires to worsening climate change to microplastics in our waters, on today’s episode you will learn what is happening and what you can do! 

To Do:


Learn more by going to the Sierra Clubs StopToxicTobaccoWaste.org . If you go to their policy tabs page, you can see a host of ideas on how to decrease the toll of tobacco pollution in your area


With Wildfire season coming, consider actions on e-cig safety. For example, ensure devices sold in your area  meet Underwriter Laboratories (UL) Standard 8139 at a minimum, which promotes lithium-ion battery safety. Ensure that your state HAS a tobacco retail license program, and make sure it includes safe disposal of e-cigarettes


Advocate for a ban on disposable electronic inhalation systems.Reuse don’t dispose.


Advocate for a ban on selling cigarettes with cigarette butts. They are a plastic that don’t make cigarettes safer for the user, and they increase microplastics likely in the body of the smoker and certainly in our environment. 


Consider a donation to the Sierra Club, to support the work they do in helping the environment in all ways, including keeping it free from tobacco waste.



Bird image from Sierra Club Environmental Justice in Tobacco Control Project



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On today’s podcast, I am joined by Ylenia Aguilar of Moms Clean Air Force and EcoMadres to share her own story from undocumented immigrant to tireless advocate for clean air and climate action. She shares important approaches to accepting our own imperfections, navigating important work while we are busy, and the joy we can all feel by adding our own “granito de arena” or grain of sand to tip the scale for a better climate future.

1- If you’re inspired to get involved, listen to the “Clean Air and Climate Advocacy for Busy People” episode from earlier this season. 

2- To learn more about the new PM2.5 standard and to see a great picture of Mom’s Clean Air Force and EcoMadres with the EPA Administrator, check out the “Bonus Episode! Good News for Clean Air!” from February of this year. 

3- To learn more about the importance of cleaning up school buses, listen to the “Healthy Buses = Health & Smart Kids” episode from Season One of the podcast. 

4- Consider joining a local Moms Clean Air Force or EcoMadres chapter, or consider a donation to keep supporting the work of Ylenia and others like her.

5- Finally, consider leaving this podcast a 5 star review wherever you listen. I am told it helps others find the podcast.




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Turns out that Spring Cleaning can be pretty powerful- it can help or harm us. I often struggle to understand volatile organic compounds or VOCs. Plenty of products are marketed as "low VOC"- is that better?

To learn more about how these chemicals interact in our homes, I interviewed Dr. Delphine Farmer , a Professor of Chemistry at Colorado State University. She is an atmospheric chemist who studies the air we breathe both indoors and outdoors. Her work has included projects such as the House Observations of Microbial and Environmental Chemistry (HOMEChem) study, which was a collaborative field investigation designed to probe how everyday activities influence the emissions, chemical transformations and removal of gasses and particles in indoor air. She has also studied how wildfire smoke and VOCs interact with our homes in the CASA study. We discuss VOCs, how we cook, clean, and ventilate our homes. She provides great tips for ensuring a health home environment- all in time for that Spring Cleaning!

To Do:

- Think through the simple steps mentioned by Professor Farmer to keep your home air clean. Consider wiping down surfaces with soap and water after a wildfire event or other big pollution event.

- To learn more about NO2 and gas appliances, listen to the episode “The Fire Inside” with Dr. Laura Paulin. 

- For more on ionizing technology and other things marketed as air cleaners, listen to the episode “Clearing the Air about Ionizers, Hydrogen Peroxide & More- the 4 D's of Safer Air with Ken Martinez"

- To learn more about cleaning agents and their risk to health, you can listen to "Cleaning Agents, Chronic Bronchitis, and Latino Lung Health" with Alejandro Diaz

- Finally, consider a donation to the American Lung Association, which works to educate about the importance of healthy indoor air.



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Dr Jeremy T. Hua MD, MPH is a lung doctor at National Jewish Health  in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. He specializes in patients who get sick from where they work and how we can help keep them healthy.

Today we discuss crystalline silica and the booming lung disease caused by inhaling it. Many of the workplaces are smaller, and employers may be unaware of the risk to employees or be put at a competitive disadvantage if they do address the risk and wider standards are not in place to protect all workers. However, the products involving quartz are everywhere, often in our kitchens, bathrooms and more.

Listen and learn how so many of the products in are lives increasingly use engineered stone, how silica exposure is increasing, and what needs to be done.



To Do

- Learn more about silicosis from the American Lung Association or at the post for this episode. 

- When considering a kitchen upgrade or other changes, consider avoiding engineered stone unless you know it has been made with high safety standards in place. 

- Write to your members of Congress to encourage robust funding and staffing of OSHA and MSHA. 

- Listen to last month’s podcast episode about coal mining and silica with Dr. Drew Harris to learn more about how to support miners.

- Consider a donation to the American Lung Association, who advocates for patients with lung diseases including Silicosis.

(Episode cover art from ALA Silicosis resources)



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This is a special bonus episode to bring you some good clean air and climate news. Advocacy is often hard and frustrating, but it is important to celebrate when improvement is made. On February 7th, 2024, the EPA released it’s final rule for the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (or NAAQS) for particulate matter pollution, lowering the annual standard to 9 ug/m3. The previous standard was 12ug/m3. If you’ve been listening to this podcast, you know that we’ve covered in multiple episodes how people were sickening and dying from lung disease, heart disease and more at levels below 12. For context, the WHO advises a standard of 5, and the American Thoracic Society has been advising a standard of 8 for years. 



It includes an update on what has happened, and a roundtable in which I participated as a representative of the American Thoracic Society.



It's important to celebrate the steps forward in advocacy!



Learn more from the EPA announement here.

Read the ALA response here.

Read the ATS response here.



The photo is of EPA administrator Michael Regan pictured with advocates from EcoMadres and Moms Clean Air Force after the signing on Feb 7th.


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Dr. Drew Harris, MD, FCCP is a lung doctor who specializes in lung disease related to coal mine dust and is passionate about healthcare for rural and disadvantaged populations. He serves as the medical director of the Black Lung Program at Stone Mountain Health Services in southwest Virginia. He joins me today to discuss the black lung crisis in Central Appalachia, where over 1000 people have been diagnosed recently with progressive massive fibrosis, the most feared form of black lung disease. We discuss today what causes this completely preventable disease, how we can prevent it, and what makes for effective and equitable advocacy in often toxic political climates.

To Do:

1- Contact your members of Congress to tell them that you are worried about the health of people who produce our energy. Insist on occupational safety standard improvement for coal workers and other miners. 

2- From coal workers lung disease to pollution of local communities to climate change, energy derived from coal is unhealthy. See what you can do in your own community to transition off of fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources. 

3- Learn more about this issue from the Appalachian Voice at appvoices.org.

4- If you work in healthcare or have someone in your life affected by lung disease, look into Chest Advocates to learn more about how to advocate in your own community.

5- If you want a framework for how to start advocating, check out the “Clean Air and Climate Advocacy for Busy People” episode from earlier in the season.

6 - Consider a donation to the Appalachian Citizens Law Center at aclc.org who provides free legal representation to coal miners.



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Visit blog post for more information, or go to airhealthourhealth.org.

Follow and comment on Facebook page and Instagram. 

Record a question or comment on the podcast site or send an e-mail via the website. 



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