May 29, 2014

Helping Them Breathe More Freely

Air, air quality, asthma, Karl Brooks, science 2 Comments

By Karl Brooks
EPA Region 7 Administrator

Asthma and its triggers constitute a real public health threat. The almost 25 million Americans who suffer from this serious, sometimes life-threatening disease already know what triggers their disease and have a plan of action. At EPA, controlling these triggers is part of our mission to protect human health and the environment.

EPA has joined with federal, state and local partners to build the nation’s capacity to control asthma and manage exposure to indoor and outdoor pollutants linked to asthma.

Throughout the month of May, EPA Region 7’s inside look into the lives of an asthmatic child and her parents (one an EPA scientist) starkly, personally reminds us of this devastating disease’s toll.

Asthma awareness should begin with a discussion on indoor asthma triggers. Americans spend up to 90 percent of their time indoors, where indoor allergens and irritants play a significant role in triggering asthma attacks. Triggers can cause asthma symptoms, an episode or attack, or make asthma worse. Persons with asthma may react to one or more triggers.

Outdoor triggers have also been a focus of EPA’s outdoor air pollution programs throughout the years. Air pollution can trigger your child’s asthma. Even healthy people can have trouble breathing on high air pollution days. Asthma attacks can occur the same day, but may also occur the day AFTER outdoor pollution levels are high. Air Quality Index (AQI) reports help to alert people to unhealthy levels.

For most people, the main air pollution triggers are small particles—also known as particulate pollution—and ozone. These pollutants come from smoke, road dust, and emissions from cars, factories and power plants. In general, ozone levels are highest in the summer, but levels of particle pollution can be high any time of year. They tend to be higher near busy roads and where people burn wood.

These challenges will build because the recently released National Climate Assessment (NCA3) tells us that we are faced with increased heat wave intensity and frequency, increased humidity, degraded air quality, and reduced water quality will increase.

Protecting health is one of our primary goals, so EPA must create real solutions for these very real problems. Just one wheezing, coughing, struggling-to-breathe child in the Heartland epitomizes the millions who suffer from asthma. Helping them breathe more freely is cause enough. EPA remains diligent in our efforts to educate and resolute in our actions to clean the air we breathe.

Dr. Karl Brooks is the Regional Administrator for USEPA Region 7. Brooks earned a Ph.D in History and Environmental Studies from the University of Kansas, and served as Associate Professor at KU until joining EPA in 2010. For his full bio visit EPA Region 7.

Editor's Note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone. EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog, nor does EPA endorse the opinions or positions expressed. You may share this post. However, please do not change the title or the content. If you do make changes, please do not attribute the edited title or content to EPA or the author.

EPA's official web site is www.epa.gov. Some links on this page may redirect users from the EPA website to a non-EPA, third-party site. In doing so, EPA is directing you only to the specific content referenced at the time of publication, not to any other content that may appear on the same webpage or elsewhere on the third-party site, or be added at a later date.

EPA is providing this link for informational purposes only. EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of non-EPA information provided by any third-party sites or any other linked site. EPA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies, internet applications or any policies or information expressed therein.

Mar 4, 2014

Environmental Protection Takes a Team

ag, agriculture, epa, Karl Brooks, Region 7 0 Comments

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, herself a veteran of state environmental agencies, always reminds us that environmental protection is an “enterprise.” That means EPA is only one part of a larger effort that keeps people healthy and our natural environment productive. A very important part, to be sure, but EPA can only accomplish our mission by working with partners: state agencies, local communities, businesses large and small, and families who grow the crops that feed our world.

Here in the Heartland, Region 7 recently hosted two important conversations that illustrate why we say, “Environmental protection is a team effort.”

Region 7 includes much of our country’s most productive farmland. From Missouri’s Bootheel, which raises cotton and rice, to Nebraska’s cattle country stretching nearly to the Rockies, agriculture’s engine room drives much of America’s farm output. And when you look west, EPA Region 8 encompasses not just the Dakotas’ irrigated corn and bean producers, but wheat growers on the Plains and stockraisers along the Rocky Mountains from Montana to Utah. This immense agricultural bounty requires the EPA to know farming, and to know farmers. Some of America’s most influential innovators are ag producers and their suppliers, customers, and research institutes at land-grant universities and private firms. More

Editor's Note: The views expressed here are intended to explain EPA policy. They do not change anyone's rights or obligations. You may share this post. However, please do not change the title or the content, or remove EPA’s identity as the author. If you do make substantive changes, please do not attribute the edited title or content to EPA or the author.

EPA's official web site is www.epa.gov. Some links on this page may redirect users from the EPA website to specific content on a non-EPA, third-party site. In doing so, EPA is directing you only to the specific content referenced at the time of publication, not to any other content that may appear on the same webpage or elsewhere on the third-party site, or be added at a later date.

EPA is providing this link for informational purposes only. EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of non-EPA information provided by any third-party sites or any other linked site. EPA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies, internet applications or any policies or information expressed therein.

Nov 4, 2013

Listening to Heartland Voices: The President’s Climate Action Plan

Climate Action Plan, Gina McCarthy, Kansas, Karl Brooks, Lenexa, President Obama, Region 7 1 Comment

This month, Region 7 will be doing a lot of what this agency does best: listen, learn, and lead. The reason: the President has tasked the EPA to take the point on one of the most important challenges facing our generation of Americans: cutting carbon pollution that harms our health, impedes our industrial competitiveness, and poses serious challenges to Heartland communities that depend on agriculture.

The President in June announced a national Climate Action Plan. The President’s Plan assigns EPA a big job in accomplishing these vital goals: cutting carbon pollution from power plants, building a transportation sector for the 21^st century, encouraging use of cleaner and avoidance of dirtier energy, and preparing this country for climate change’s impacts on weather and water.

Sep 10, 2013

Here in the Heartland

agriculture, Gina McCarthy, Iowa State Fair, Kansas, Karl Brooks, Region 7 1 Comment

Here in the Heartland, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cares about fairs. All kinds of fairs: local, county, and the “big ones” for our four states. In a region that provides a huge share of the nation’s and the world’s food, forage, fiber, and fuel, these annual gatherings in late summer and early fall give ag producers and their families a great chance to show off their work and to educate their city cousins about the realities of growing food.

Since I became the Regional Administrator for EPA’s Region 7 office, I have attended the Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri State Fairs. I spent a great day in Des Moines last month at “the fair with which none can compare,” the Iowa State Fair. Hope the attached pictures show how much fun I had, and also how much new EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy valued her day at the Fair.
More