{"id":110621,"date":"2015-07-30T19:38:08","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T01:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/schools-help-improve-air-quality-for-the-children\/"},"modified":"2015-07-30T19:38:08","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T01:38:08","slug":"schools-help-improve-air-quality-for-the-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/schools-help-improve-air-quality-for-the-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Schools help improve air quality for the children"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Clean Air for Schools: Engines Off! program, focused on reducing emissions from idling of cars of parents who are picking up children after school. It lowered emissions from idling vehicles around participating schools by an average of 60 percent last year.<\/span>Matthew Paul Argall\/Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The program, now in its seventh year, helps reduce pollution from idling vehicles as parents wait to pick up their children after school. Kim Tyrrell, air-quality programs manager with the American Lung Association in Colorado, says, on average, participating schools have cut exhaust emissions by 60 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne minute of idling produces as much carbon monoxide as smoking three packs of cigarettes,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we don\u2019t really give too much thought to sitting and idling our vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyrrell says the program works directly with schools along with a \u201cparent champion.\u201d Data are collected on the number of vehicles waiting and how long they\u2019re idling, followed by a public awareness and intervention campaign to change behavior.<\/p>\n

According to Tyrrell, idle-reduction efforts are particularly important in school zones. She says human lungs continue to develop until children turn 18, and exposure to exhaust can stunt lung growth and contribute to medical disorders, including asthma.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that outdoor air pollution can be a significant trigger,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you\u2019ve ever been around a school, a lot of times the places where parents are sitting and idling happens to be right next to a place where children are playing.<\/p>\n

Forty Colorado schools in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder and Mesa counties have taken part in the program so far. The American Lung Association in Colorado manages the program with support from several partners, including the Colorado Department of Transportation and Kaiser Permanente.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clean Air for Schools: Engines Off! program, focused on reducing emissions from idling of cars of parents who are picking up children after school. It lowered emissions from idling vehicles around participating schools by an average of 60 percent last year.Matthew Paul Argall\/Wikimedia Commons The program, now in its seventh year, helps reduce pollution […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5794,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-110621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110621"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=110621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}