Hampton Roads ‘doing the right things’ for air quality

Stephanie Hudson
·2 min read

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Take a deep breath Hampton Roads, overall our air quality is pretty good.

It’s report card week. The American Lung Association released its State of the Air report and you could say Hampton Roads has made the honor roll.

“You guys are doing really well when compared to the rest of Virginia and especially when you’re looking at DC and Maryland as well,” said Dr. Amit “Bobby” Mahajan, a spokesperson for the American Lung Association and Medical Director, Inova Interventional Pulmonology and Complex Airway Disease Program.

The American Lung Association ranked Hampton Roads among the cleanest cities for particle pollution but we fell off the list for a little bit of ozone and smog.

Mahajan said Hampton Roads is doing all the right things, from minimizing car emission with an increase in electric vehicle use, to companies producing less smoke.

“What we look at that you can do better and what I think everyone could do better,” he said, “is trying to inform and let individuals who have underlying lung diseases like emphysema or asthma be aware of when those days are really bad.”

Those days are usually in the summer when its so hot you can see the heat radiating off the pavement.

Both ozone and particle pollution can cause asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, preterm births and premature death. Particle pollution can also cause lung cancer.
So even one bad air day advocates say is one too many.

“As a mom of a kid with asthma on those days of bad air and he has trouble breathing, its very real and its very scary,” said American Lung Association Director of Advocacy, Aleks Casper.

Casper encourages everyone to consider walking, biking or using public transportation, if available, to help air quality.

“It is getting harder to clean up the air as we see increasing temperatures and climate change,” she said. “It becomes harder so its almost like we have to work harder to make sure our air is cleaner,” she said.

Virginia passed a clean car law stating that all new vehicles sold in the state must be electric by 2035.

The American Lung Association supports the effort and is lobbying for more change at the federal level, so future generations can breath easier.

You can find information on policy and advocacy here. You can check the air quality in your city here.

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