Kids and Parents Make ‘I Love Clean Air’ Valentine’s Day Cards for U.S. Senators
Audubon Ohio
On Feb. 14, Cleveland families declared their love for clean air by delivering handmade Valentines cards to Ohio’s U.S. Senators in support of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and new federal clean air standards.
“Some in Congress are working on provisions to block new clean air standards and I want to be sure that Ohio members of Congress don’t take my breath away but instead support the U.S. EPA and a clean and healthy future for my children” said Anna Mauser Martinez of Cleveland Heights. She joined her sons at a Valentine card party to create clean air Valentines. “Taking the time to make a handmade Valentine was my way of personally reminding our Senators that I, and many other families they represent, care deeply about clean air and the agencies trying to protect it.”
Congress is currently considering several legislative proposals to prevent the EPA from protecting the public health with new clean air standards that would reduce air pollution from toxic substances like mercury, arsenic, soot, smog, carbon and other pollutants. Many of these new standards would save thousands of lives each year.
The new mercury and air toxics standards will save as many as 11,000 lives, prevent as many as 130,000 asthma attacks among children and prevent as many as 4,700 heart attacks each year according to the EPA. The Cross State Air Pollution rule will save as many as 34,000 lives, prevent as many as 15,000 heart attacks and prevent as many as 400,000 asthma attacks by reducing dangerous air pollution in communities downwind and often in other states from dirty power plants. The new standards for car emissions will reduce industrial carbon pollution that threatens thousands of lives and will spur innovation that will improve automobile mileage and create jobs in the auto industry.
“Families in Ohio support the U.S. EPA because we love clean air and because we love our children” said Marnie Urso, mother of two and spokesperson for Audubon Ohio. “We are asking Senators Brown and Portman to have a heart and protect the health of our kids here in Cleveland, and across the state, by making sure that the strongest clean air protections are enacted.”
For more information about this event, email Marnie Urso. For more information about clean air, visit our Clean Air Act page.