Proposition 40:
Vital Funding For Clean Air Projects

The American Lung Association of California has endorsed Proposition 40, the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Coastal Protection and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond Act of 2002 because it provides important funding for clean air projects. Prop. 40 would provide $50 million to the State Air Resources Board for the "Carl Moyer Air Quality Standards Attainment Program" which funds projects to reduce diesel emissions through replacement or upgrading of diesel engines in transit buses, school buses, municipal waste trucks, marine vessels, forklifts, agricultural irrigation pumps, and other applications. The Carl Moyer Program is an essential component of the state’s program to fight diesel pollution and the American Lung Association of California has supported this program from its inception.

Key Points:

• Prop. 40 will provide $50 million dollars to the Carl Moyer Program, which is a highly effective program that has resulted in substantial reductions in diesel pollution throughout California. Half of the funding has gone toward projects using alternative fuels such as natural gas school buses and transit buses.
   
• Diesel exhaust contains nitrogen oxide (NOx), which contributes to ozone formation, and soot particles that contribute to asthma attacks, lung cancer, and premature death as well as other short-term and chronic respiratory conditions.
   
• The campaign to reduce diesel pollution as put forward in Prop. 40 is essential to improved public health in California due to the large number of diesel engines in use, the toxicity of diesel particles, and the key role of diesel in contributing to smog formation.
   
• The California Air Resources Board (CARB) officially listed diesel particulate as a "Toxic Air Contaminant" in 1998 due to extensive evidence that exposure to diesel exhaust increases the risk of lung cancer. CARB has determined that particles in diesel exhaust account for over 70% of the cancer risk from toxic air contaminants statewide.
   
• Despite making up fewer than 5% of the vehicles on the road, diesel engines account for 40% of the total nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and two-thirds of the particulate matter from mobile sources in California.
   
• Ninety-four percent of diesel emissions are fine particles (less than 2.5 microns in diameter), which can bypass respiratory defense mechanisms and lodge deep in the lung, and can stay in the lung for long periods of time.
   
• A ten year study of children funded by the California Air Resources Board and conducted by USC has produced strong evidence that smog can cause asthma in children. This same study previously produced evidence that pollution slows the development of lungs in children.
   
• Children are especially susceptible to diesel pollution because their organs and immune systems are still developing, and they breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults.

Contacts:

Bonnie Holmes-Gen, Assistant V.P., Government Relations
American Lung Association of California
(916) 442-4446; bhgen@alac.org

Andy Weisser, Director of Communications
American Lung Association of California
aweisser@earthlink.net
(818) 703-6444

Related Links:

Action Alert: Vote Yes on Prop 40 for Cleaner Air! (February 13, 2002)

Campaign website: www.voteyeson40.org