I have two kids -- 3 and 4 -- and clean air is a no-brainer to have as a priority...not just for my kids, but to remain healthy so I can parent them well. I am shocked by the diesel smoke that plumes from trucks around here, and the fact that there are days that the air isn't clean enough for kids to go outside is unconscionable. High smog days are a major red flag that this is the AIR we BREATHE, and we are in control to not muck it all up. We can protect our species, and we're smart enough to know it, yet we do nothing about it because... corporations are making more money that way?

We moved to Ohio 3 years ago. My daughter was 2 and she developed asthma that put her in the hospital 3 times. I brought her to a holistic doctor that put her on Natrium Sulfate ( a form of Salt) that will stop her asthma symptoms and I have taken her off of all medications. Perhaps this might work for you. USA Today "Smokestack Report" ranks all air quality around the nation using EPA data provided by outputs given by factories. Ohio can rank as low as 3% air quality in Warren. The companies that pollute need better means to capture the pollutants before they can do harm.

Thank you for being an activist.

thanks for your time and effort, I fully support stronger regulations.

Pollution and health care cost are related, from the air we breathe to the food we eat. We need to diminish if not eliminate the chemicals from plants, car exhaust, and do more recycling of paper and plastic. Ohio is very dirty and polluted state, alas.

Clean air, water, and food is a God given right of creation on this Earth. We are smart enough and have the hands of mankind to make the transition to a sustainable way of life. All we need to do is allow greed to diminish, for it brings death on its' heels to creation. May respect and love for existence illuminate the way.

We need clean air, clean water, and, as much as possible, good earth.

Keep it up!

We live just north of the Cincinnati city limits. At least once a week I smell pollution from the chemical companies on Este Rd just west of Interstate 75. Cognis is one of the many plants in this area.
I just close my doors and wait to go outside and walk my dogs. I have asked the Hamilton County Environmental services to come and investigate the smell several times. They have come out altho by the time they check it out it dissipates and nothing ever results from this. We live south of Ronald Reagen hiway and east of 75. We are surrounded with pollution from car exhaust and these chemical companies and the waste dump also on Este Road. We need to put a lid on these pollutants. Ohio is officially rated as one of the worst in air pollution.
Roxanne and David Engle

Keep up the good work. We are very close to the Meigs County coal fired power plants!

I understand that short-termed "bottom line" thinking about "dead green" (money), rather than long-term thinking for the future, "living green", is the reason the U.S. continues politically and economically to blindly degrade our natural environment, rather than make the effort to clean up our mess.

When you look at countries like Scandinavia and Germany where such systems and efforts are supported, it makes the U.S. look pathetic and backwards. Not only are we destroying our part of the planet, we also seem bent on destroying other parts as well.

Who are the forward thinking US politicians and business leaders who lobby and legislate for research and business practices creating better jobs and a cleaner environment??? Why do we keep supporting the same old tired behavior and fingerpointing??? I hope we can change and I say thank you to those including Rachel, who are making the effort.

dirty air affects us all. how much money could our economy put to better use if we didn't have to pay for pollution in sick days missed from work, lowered life expectancy, lower quality of life, etc. Thanks for standing up for me. sandi, mantua, oh

Thank you for standing up for our right to breathe clean air. I suffer from allergies and air pollution just makes it worse. Please keep up the good.

I live in Ohio. My mother's friend died of an asthma attack at age 50. My son and daughter both have asthma. We need clean air now!

The stubborn refusal of government leaders to embrace mature, cost competitive renewable power technologies such as wind and solar is the great crime of this century.

We can do better. We must if we are to survive.

Thank you for standing up for the right of all to breathe clean air. Thank you for sharing your story with others. Education is key to make people aware of the toxins in our air and water.

You speak for thousands of children who experience breathing issues from the air pollution. How can they learn if they cannot breath?

I have such respect for your leadership and courage in this battle which is denied by the groups whose only motivation is the continuation of dirty power and denying the effects on the earth to line their already bulging pockets. Keep up the good and sometimes thankless work

Thank you so much for your efforts, Rachel. I support the important work you are doing.

Keep up the good work

I am a member of Repower America and have given a talk on Global Warming. the quality of our air is inextricably linked to the amount of carbon and other pollutants. We are destroying a football field of forest every second. These are the lungs of the earth. The lungs of the atmosphere are in direct relationship to the amount of oxygen we breathe. We need more oxygen now!

I support your efforts to ensure that all residents of the Ohio River Valley have clean air.

asthma, allergies, chronic bronchitis, emphesema and COPD all become worse or beome yours in an unhealthy environment. Health care 101, clean up the envrionment, reduce health care costs and decrease the number of people living with disability and disease! Help improve our quality of life!

I support you Rachel 100%! Clean air and water are, indeed, part of the basic necessities of life. I have read most of the responses and want to remind everyone that Zimmer was almost a nuclear plant. Rob Portman supports nuclear, you want clean energy? Guess what kind we'll get. Who wants to donate their backyard for the contaminated byproduct of nuclear waste? Smokestack washers can help the byproduct of coal. Cheaply? No, but still doable. Alternative energy? Good luck on that. In the meantime, trees produce oxygen and absorb CO2. When they are cut down, they release the stored CO2. Look around Hamilton Co, particularly out I-74, Clear cutting of trees all over the place. There goes all the fresh air that helps counter balance the bad. We need incentives for people to keep their large wooded tracts of land in tact. Now there's a novel idea! Think of them as little oxygen tanks boosting fresh air just like the little energy stations boosting the electrical grid. Best of luck to you.

I am behind you 100%, Rachel! Those of us who can see past the dollar bill will have to win this fight for everyone! Even those who "don't get it"!

I am with you, Rachel! How can people turn a "blind eye" to one of our most basic needs?
I am a grandmother of nine, and I am 100% behind those fighting for clean air and water!

Thank you, Rachel,

I grew up in Pittsburgh in the bad-air old days, so I know how far we have come. I also see how much further we still need to go to have truly clean, healthy air. We certainly don't want to go back to the problems we had in the past, but it's not enough to just preserve the limited progress we have made so far -- rather, we need to move forward on this issue until everyone has air that is pure & safe to breathe. I wholeheartedly support your efforts to encourage progress on this vitally important issue. Thank you.

Do remind them -- as of course you will -- that all of us here in the Queen of cities -- infants, toddlers, school kids, adults, and elderly walkers and bikers like me, all of us -- are breathing the 9th worst metropolitan air in the country!

And you can tell them that if they're remotely interested in placing survival of our species at a higher priority than some individuals' pocketbooks, it's time they show it.

You might also suggest they help save democracy -- not just freedom, but democracy, too -- by signing up to end corporate personhood at http://MoveToAmend.org.

Keep up the good work!

Thank you, Rachael.

Do remind them -- as of course you will -- that all of us here in the Queen of cities -- infants, toddlers, school kids, adults, and elderly walkers and bikers like me, all of us -- are breathing the 9th worst metropolitan air in the country!

And you can tell them that if they're remotely interested in placing survival of our species at a higher priority than some individuals' pocketbooks, it's time they show it.

You might also suggest they help save democracy -- not just freedom, but democracy, too -- by signing up to end corporate personhood at http://MoveToAmend.org.

Keep up the good work!
Michael

MAN IS THE EARTHS WORST ENEMY. WE ARE LATE IN REALLY ENFORCING A CLEAN AIR ACT WHEN WE KNOW COAL LEAKS OUT MERCURY WHICH IS VERY BAD FOR ALL OUR HEALTH

Rachael, thanks for your spirit and committment to clan air.
The Earth is one living realitiy; what we do to its air, water and land, we do to ourselves.

Asthma - Need I say more?

Fight for our right to breathe free air.

Fight for our right to breathe free air.

I own land on 63 acres back a deadend road in southern Ohio and a house in Dayton. During the week while staying on the land I am virtually allergy and sinus trouble free. As soon as I return to Dayton my mouth rash appears, I breathe shallowly (and have to focus on my breathing to get enough air into my lungs), and my energy level plummets, I wake up in the middle of the night unable to breathe. Although I am exposed to many more tree, weed, and grass pollens down south, I am not exposed to the high particulate matter and coal generated pollutants that exist in Dayton. It makes a world of difference. In the country, I breathe easily.

Since I have moved to Ohio, I increasingly have trouble breathing, especially on hot summer days when I try to ride my horse outside. It feels like there isn't enough oxygen in the air.
Although the profiteers have some sort of suicide wish for our planet, or just don't care about THEIR children, thank you for your work and supporting everyone's right to fresh air.
Your work will also help the lakes in Ohio that all have health warnings for pregnant and children to avoid the fish because of high Mercury levels from Coal.

I want to thank Racheal for the time and effort she is devoting to this issue.

I live in Cincinnati and I recently heard on the news that Hamilton county is among the 25 worst counties in America for air quality. I'm sure this has to do with the fact that our electricity in this region comes from coal. Something must be done to improve this situation.

What is more important than clean air and water?

My allergies have also worsened since moving to Ohio 32 years ago. Sometimes we can't easily choose where we live but we can certainly make our voices heard about the environment in which we live.

The clock is ticking, and we NEED to reverse the course with clean energy before we totally destroy the ecosystem and this planet. All the profit a few can make will not save their skin ! Otherwise there will not be a next generation, and the wealthy will die from their greed just as much as we will die from their selfishness and poor judgement ! Please do what is right ! Plus the next elections are coming fast, what image do you project of yourself ?

Thanks, Rachael. For representing me.
Everyone and all life need clean air and water. Some humans think we're invincible. We're not.

i hope pollution will be stopped.

i live across the street from a business that pollutes nearly every day and it bothers my eyes, ears,s nose and throat sometimes.
no one is willing to do anything about it. this troubles me...

how many others are going through the same thing?

with all the toxic and air water atmosphere do people wonder why our weather changes? environment affects our health and the world we live in.

Everyone deserves to breathe clean air around them both day & night always they also deserve to drink clean water too! It's time to clean up the environment so people can breathe clean air & drink clean water as well! It's time they got their act together & do what needs to be done now!

Let the facts speak: Coal isn't clean, oil is killing us and nuclear is not carbon neutral. The real solution is so simple; solar, wind and other clean technologies. Dirty power is killing us, clean power can save us.

Clean air and water are a basic human right

No wonder so many people here have such chronic coughs. Seems to be happening to me as well. Fight the good fight, Rachael!

We all know that advertising lies. The newest campaign touting 'clean' coal has got to be one of the biggest advertising lies of all time. Coal ruins the earth from the moment it is mined to when it's processed to when it's burned and finally when its waste is left to pollute. There has got to be a better way.

I agree that Cincinnati is one of the worst places to live, because of air pollution. I was allergy free before moving here at age 22. Now as a senior citizen, I am beset with chronic breathing problems, coughing and loss of energy. One of the problems to be overcome is the mindset of US Senators such as Rob Portman from Ohio. Rob doesn't believe it is right to burden corporations to prove that their pollution is safe. If not them, who? (I have an email from Rob which states this -- I am not making it up.)

I support Rachel! I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio and I want my air and water to be cleaner and healthier than what is considered acceptable. I do not want my electricity from coal anymore! I demand clean energy.

Take my portion of those tax payer funded oil subsidies and invest it in clean energy research and funding NOW!