City’s goal is to breathe easy Cleaner air by 2030 among mayor's aims as hospitalization rates for youths with asthma rise above U.S. average

By EMI ENDO. emi.endo@newsday.com
Newsday

February 28, 2007

Marta Rodriguez always tries to make sure her son Justin McMillan bundles up in the biting cold.

Not just because she's his mother - the Bronx woman said she worries he might have an asthma attack.

"When it's really, really cold outside, he has to make sure his face is covered so he doesn't directly breathe in the cold air," said Rodriguez, 31, who lives with her two children half a block from the Bruckner Expressway in Hunts Point.

Allergies in the spring and fall and stifling smog in the summer also become extra burdens for Justin, 11, and others suffering from asthma in the Bronx, where hospitalization rates for children up to age 14 are nearly four times the national average. Throughout the five boroughs, rates are double the national average, according to city officials.

Cleaning the air is among the lofty goals set out in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's look toward the year 2030, when the city's population is expected to hit 9 million. The first of five town hall meetings is scheduled for this evening at the College of Staten Island as the administration seeks public input on its plans for the future.

Last December, Bloomberg announced 10 goals, including to "achieve the cleanest air of any big city in America."
While some air pollutants have been reduced since 1990, the city falls short of federal Environmental Protection Agency standards for ozone, as well as new standards for fine particulate matter.

Ozone at ground level, formed when pollutants from cars or power plants react in sunlight, can aggravate asthma. Dust and soot in the air, or particulate matter - especially "fine" particles as tiny as 1/30th the width of a human hair - are believed to pose health risks because they can lodge deeply in the lungs, according to the EPA.

A recent five-year New York University study showed a link between soot from diesel trucks in the South Bronx and wheezing and other asthma symptoms by measuring personal exposures to traffic pollution.

"There's now a growing body of science that the problem can be especially severe right down at street level," said Andy Darrell, New York regional director of the nonprofit group Environmental Defense.

Darrell said that one key approach to improving air quality is to "clean up the tail pipes themselves," by burning cleaner fuels and attaching filters to diesel trucks and other equipment.

The other, he said, is the idea of "congestion pricing," charging motorists to drive during the most crowded times. Some transportation experts and The Partnership for New York City, a group of business executives, also support the concept. The Partnership cited London's experience with congesting pricing in the center of the city since 2003.

Opponents criticize such measures as elitist because wealthier motorists can better afford to pay. So far, most politicians are loath to tax free roadways.

Other suggestions have poured in to the city's Web site (nyc.gov/planyc2030). Many measures aimed at fighting air pollution also would help the city with some of its other goals, such as reducing global warming emissions by 30 percent and improving travel times by adding transit capacity for millions more people.

Rob Crauderueff, a program coordinator at the environmental advocacy group Sustainable South Bronx, said the city's efforts had the "potential to create some strong policies. It's kind of a question of how strong the political will is to make the city as sustainable as it can be."