Fwd:next step for safer air to breathe
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>HUMAN HEALTH HOUSTON AIR QUALITY
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>Dear Precinct Chairs/Club Officers; The next step to get Safer Air to Breathe requires a few minutes of your valuable time.
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>WHEN: Tuesday January 10, 2006
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>WHO: You and a couple members in your precinct or club. If your precinct is in City of Houston call, email, or plan to appear before the Mayor and city council. The City Council takes public comment Tuesday starting at 2 pm. Get your name on the agenda by calling the City Secretary at 713-247-1840. You will have one to three minutes per person to speak.
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>If your precinct in Harris County call, email, or plan to appear before County Commissioners' Court. Call 713-755-4011 and ask to get your name on the county agenda for 10 am Tuesday. You have one to three minutes per person to speak.
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>WHAT WE WANT IS: 1. Appropriate science-based air quality standards for Houston that result in safer air to breathe (we need specific performance measures for each science)
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>2. Reasonable and appropriate measurements for public health protection that would be included in an environmental assessment.
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>]Be specific about wording your concern or YOUR request for yourself and your precinct/community.]
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>MY SPECIFIC ISSUES AND QUESTIONS: I want to know what specific human health indicators are used by local health professionals to monitor public health. I plan to say something like . . .
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>Mayor White may I get a prioritized list of human health indicators that the City of Houston uses to monitor public health? I would like the list to include the number of incidences per year for each indicator. I want to see that data summarized by ZIP CODE and city council district [I live in District A].
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>I want to know what incident number for each health indicator triggers an alert to local schools and city employees who work outdoor.
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>Does the city have a project that delineated specific ZIP codes with excess incidences of public health problems related to outdoor air quality? If yes, how may I acquire a copy? If no, is such a project in the health department's $50 million budget for 2006?
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>______________________SOME CONTACT INFORMATION: Check the telephone book for phone numbers. City of Houston: Mayor Bill White [713-247-2200; ], City council:
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>Please join us in person on january 10th if your schedule will permit.
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>Sincerely, Stephanie Hrabar, Ph.D., Environmental Initiative of the Houston Region Democrats 713-683-0638
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>BACKGROUND: The following resolution was approved by the Harris County Democratic Party on June 30, 2005 RESOLUTION REGARDING STANDARDS FOR SAFER AIR TO BREATHE
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>WHEREAS Harris County, Texas is the third largest populated county in the United States with about 2 million voters and 3 million residents;
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>Harris County has 22% of the roll call in seven (7) of the 31 Senate Districts in Texas; the counties in these seven districts include Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Jefferson, Montgomery, and Orange. These counties politically define the "Houston Region".
>The City of Houston, Harris County, Texas is the 4th largest populated city in the United States; and is to home of the oil and gas industry, NASA and the largest medical complex in the world;
>Vehicles (44%) and industry (55%) are the leading sources of air pollution and toxic emissions in the Houston Region;
>General property tax revenue is the primary source of funds for public institutions and agencies, such as city and county pollution control and the regional offices of the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality, Texas Department of Health, and Department of Transportation;
>Harris County and the Houston Region are consistently out of compliance with Ambient Air Quality Standards for major criteria air pollutants. These pollutants are acknowledged by both the scientific community and the city, county, and state Departments of Health and Texas Commission of Environmental Quality as exacerbating both respiratory and cardiovascular related disease in the human population.
>BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED THAT the Harris County Democratic Party supports:
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>Appropriate science-based air quality standards for the Houston Region that will result in safer indoor and outdoor air for all humans to breathe.
>Environmental assessments that include protection for human health based on appropriate health and life science peer reviewed studies.
>An environmental economic formula that includes an environmental assessment that will protect both public revenues and public health for publicly funded transportation and development projects.