Gasp advocates for better air quality, air pollution awareness

Gasp Executive Director Michael Hansen said the air quality watch group and community nonprofit, located at 2320 Highland Ave. S., is celebrating 10 years of serving people in the Birmingham community.

Hansen, who has been with Gasp for six years, said the organization is still doing what it set out to do: address and find solutions to the ongoing air pollution problems and bring about more awareness to the public, in addition to providing hyper-local air quality information through their website.

“[Air pollution] is not visible like it used to be. That’s because we have air pollution controls on a lot of facilities and it scrubs out the really dirty looking stuff, though what we are left with is ultra-fine particles that are not visible, but they can still get into your lungs and your blood — it’s not good,” Hansen said.

In general, he said, the public is aware that there have been improvements to air quality in Birmingham in the last 40 or so years due to the Clean Air Act passed in 1970, but the public is not aware that there are still dangerous ozone gases — which are invisible to the human eye — in the city that can be harmful to human health. 

“There has been a concerted effort on polluters like Alabama Power, Drummond Company and Alagasco. All of these companies that pollute the air, water and land kind of cover up and mask the pollution and make the public believe everything is fine, when in fact, we can do a lot, lot better,” Hansen said.

Groups that can be especially sensitive to air pollution are children, people with asthma, pregnant women, seniors and people with chronic illnesses.

“Air pollution is the number one environmental cause of premature death and disease in the world,” Hansen said. “Recent estimates say it exceeds tobacco-related deaths, so what we are trying to do is let people know that just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean that it is good for you.”

Gasp offers all-day environmental training sessions throughout the year that teach both knowledge and skill-building on how to identify local issues and be safer when air quality is compromised. Gasp also sponsors a program called Clean Air, Healthy Kids in all the schools in the Jefferson County school district, where science and environmental teachers help students install air quality monitors, measure the amount of unhealthy particulate matter in the air and compare the results.

To be made more aware of air safety in Birmingham, Hansen suggests becoming a member of Gasp to receive newsletters and air quality news and updates. He also suggests getting involved or volunteering for Gasp or other environmental nonprofits, as well as signing up for free air quality alerts on airnow.gov, which is run by the Environmental Protection Agency. 

For more information on air quality and upcoming events, go to gaspgroup.org.