According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than half of all Americans live in counties that fail to meet basic healthy air standards for ozone pollution, or smog, including everyone in the five boroughs of New York City and Westchester.

Smog pollution is linked to heart, lung and respiratory disease. It is a known trigger of asthma attacks, and in Westchester County alone close to 48,000 people – 25% being children – have been diagnosed with asthma. Dirty air is bad for health, bad for the economy and bad for all of us in this region.

Smog is the result of pollutants that come from tail pipes and smokestacks. Some of that pollution is generated locally, and some is borne by more distant pollution sources such as upwind power-plant smokestacks. The public and private sectors have the ability to cut that pollution dramatically. Here are a few steps that our leaders can take right now to help clear the air:

Clean up the dirtiest diesel engines. Heavy diesel engines, like those in construction machinery, ferries and even school buses, are under-regulated and highly polluting. Yet the technology exists to clean them up. The basic approach is to use a cleaner grade of diesel fuel and retrofit the tailpipe with a powerful emissions filter to capture the pollution before it hits our lungs. These technologies are available in this region and are cost-effective ways to cut pollution from diesel engines up to 90%.

In December 2003, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the NY City Council put into law a commitment to require all city agencies to use the cleanest grade of diesel fuel and best available pollution-reduction technologies in all public works construction contracts. Business and government statewide should follow that lead. Every school, every construction site, every diesel engine in New York should be using clean fuels and pollution-reduction technology. The same is true for home heating oil.

Invest in clean transportation. It's not news that our roads – from I-287 to local streets – are choked with congestion, and congestion generates air pollution. Our leaders can commit the region to cleaner air by investing in several strategies: rail-freight improvements to help shift the movement of goods from trucks to rail; flexible forms of transit (like bus rapid transit and commuter-linked van pools) that fit the county’s needs; and incentives that make it more affordable and convenient for all commuters to get to work without their cars. For example, every Westchester business should offer commuter benefits to help employees get to and from work in ways that minimize gridlock, and make sure that its own vehicle fleets are as clean as they can be. Major regional roadways should move toward congestion pricing systems that vary toll rates according to the levels of congestion.

Help strengthen the nation's commitment to clean air. Proposals are on the table to roll back critically important parts of this country's clean-air laws. For example, the federal transportation bill before Congress threatens to weaken the Clean Air Act’s healthy air targets for large metropolitan areas. Pollution from roadways in regions like this one is often underestimated. With more than half the country breathing dirty air, this should be a time to roll out strong commitments to cleaner air at every level of leadership in the public and private sectors.

Westchester County can be a regional leader on clean air. It makes sense for the county’s economic and environmental future.