TodayResidents advocate for clean air
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Clean air advocates Jennifer McKenna, left, and Pam Frohman are shown standing along the Miracle Mile. (Michael Bupp/The Sentinel)
Jennifer McKenna decided to do something about air pollution after she saw a newspaper ad last summer in which 100 area doctors called for improved air quality standards.
Their concerns prompted McKenna to form the Carlisle Area Clean Air Board.
“We feel that the Judeo-Christian heritage requires us to do something for creation,” says McKenna, the assistant pastor at Second Presbyterian Church in Carlisle.
The group initially began as a gathering of church members, but participation expanded to include area doctors, lawyers and other concerned citizens from other churches and a local synagogue.
McKenna says about 20 to 30 people have attended the first six meetings.
The fledgling group joined three other activist groups in a press conference Thursday in Harrisburg to highlight a recent report that the Harrisburg-Carlisle region ranks among the 10 most-polluted mid-sized areas in the nation.
Pam Frohman represented CCAB in calling for passage of anti-idling ordinances and a halt to further trucking-intensive development until technology that can reduce diesel emissions is mandated in local laws.
“I love living and raising my family in Carlisle,” said Frohman, a homemaker and mother of three. “It is sad to me that the air is becoming toxic. To be among the top 2 percent of the most polluted counties in the nation is no honor.”
Nathan Willcox of PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center praised the Carlisle group as an example of one way that people can advocate for cleaner air.
“I think Carlisle is setting a great example,” he said.
Willcox unveiled a new report called “Plagued By Pollution” that shows Pennsylvania ranked second in levels of “fine-particle” — also called soot — pollution in the nation as measured over one year.
Lancaster, York-Hanover and Reading were the other three south-central Pennsylvania communities to make the top 10.
“Particle pollution is a serious and persistent problem in south-central Pennsylvania,” said Kevin Stewart of the American Lung Association.
Fine particle pollution exacerbates medical conditions such as bronchitis and asthma and has been linked to cancer. Its most common sources are diesel engines and coal-burning power plants located as far away as the Midwest, Stewart said.
The danger of soot is that it can carry toxic materials deep in the lungs where it bypasses the body’s normal defense mechanisms. From there, it can enter the bloodstream. Besides respiratory diseases, fine particle pollution has been linked to heart attacks.
FYI
Carlisle Area Clean Air Board is holding its next meeting at 2 p.m. Feb. 14 in the Second Presbyterian Church, 528 Garland Drive, Carlisle. All are welcome to join the interfaith group.
