Help your kids learn about clean air by clicking on the South Coast Air Quality Management Districts (AQMD) web site AQMD Kids' Site and clicking on the side panel for “stuff to do” and for other information for kids. The AQMD also did a local study on air quality and children’s health; learn about this by linking to their site Subject Top Page: The Children's Health Study.

To learn about educational programs and policies for air quality, link to the Coalition for Clean Air and Children's Environmental Health web site.

The number of days with poor air quality was 255 days in the Los Angeles Area and 445 days in the Riverside area between 2000–2002, per a 2003 report by the Surface Transportation Policy Report. The rate (or prevalence) of asthma has increased by more than 75% since 1980, according to the California Air Resources Control Board; the group most affected is children. Children riding in older school buses with diesel fuel are subject to two to five times the amount of pollution than kids riding in newer, cleaner buses.

A study released by the Environmental Defense predicted that vehicle emissions could grow by 19% by 2005 and 57% by 2010 in the greater Los Angeles region under a new US EPA proposal. Check their web site at Environmental Defense. The Los Angeles Times reported that vehicle exhaust accounts for 70% of the smog-forming emissions in Southern California; even though newer cars are cleaner, newer cars are driven farther, and there are more cars on the road (and the older cars that pollute are often sold as used and still polluting the air).

Unfortunately, the White House has, in the new “Clear Skies Act” attempted to dilute requirements for cleaner cars, off-road internal combustion engines, power plants, and other clean air controls that control clean air, which will lead to more sickness and deaths from polluted air.

To help improve air quality, support legislation that cleans the air, support groups that work to keep the air clean for you and your children, buy a hybrid or electric car if you can, and use products or equipment that is cleaner for the air. Learn more about air quality at sites like Air Pollution Facts, Clean Air Resources - Clean Air - Sierra Club.