Breathe Deep with Natural Gas
Poor air quality has become a health crisis in America and globally. The crisis is peaked in urban areas and the #1 source of harmful urban emissions is heavy-duty trucks not certified to the latest EPA NOx emission standard.
There are 141 million Americans living in areas where the air is unhealthy to breathe. That’s 4 out of every 10 Americans.1 Poor air quality delivers significant public health impacts contributing to increased incidence of asthma, emphysema, COPD, lung cancer, heart disease and premature death for urban residents.
Harmful emissions reportedly cause asthma to develop in children and trigger asthma attacks for both children and adults. There are currently 25 million Americans suffering from asthma. That’s 1 out of every 12 Americans. And of those, every day 30,000 will have asthma attacks, 5,000 will visit emergency rooms and 11 will die from asthma-related complications.2
With 71% of the African American population living in counties in violation of federal air pollution standards, African American children are twice as likely to be hospitalized for asthma and four times more likely to die from asthma-related complications.3
A new study recently released in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) finds that long-term exposure to slightly elevated levels of air pollution can be linked to accelerated levels of lung damage, even among people who have never smoked.4 Shockingly, air pollution may be as harmful to your lungs as smoking cigarettes.
The NOx emissions and air particulates delivered by aging heavy-duty diesel fleets that do not meet the EPA NOx emission standard deliver a lasting impact on public health. Currently available heavy-duty natural gas engine technology is an immediate answer to dramatically reducing these harmful emissions. To find out how safe the air is in your community, visit www.airnow.gov for daily updates.
Cleaner Air Starts with Cleaner Trucks and Buses. Choose Cleaner, Healthier Natural Gas. #CleanFleetMonth
1 American Lung Association, 2019
2 EPA, 2016
3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
4 Journal of the American Medical Association, August 13, 2019
