Exercise & Air Quality for Kids & Schools- with Dr. Lowinsky-Desir

Kicking off Season Four with a great episode! As the parent of three kids and a lung doctor, I always wonder how best to balance exercise benefits when air quality is marginal. Fortunately, there are experts hard at work on understanding how we should approach this topic.

Dr. Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir is chief of the pediatric pulmonary division at Columbia University and cares for patients and conducts research in the Department of Pediatrics and the Dept Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. Her multidisciplinary, award-winning, and collaborative research is focused on understanding how environmental factors impact children with asthma, particularly in urban and minority communities.  She recently served on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act Scientific Advisory Committee as a member of the particulate matter panel in 2021.

On the podcast today, we discuss her research that put pollution monitors on children, and followed them. It turns out they are significantly exposed to pollution during school hours, so it is very important for schools to build clean indoor air infrastructure and to be aware of available resources, such as the EPA Air Quality flag program.

To Do:

1- Download the Airnow.gov app if you haven’t yet- familiarize yourself with the Air Quality Index and who is at risk. 

2- Find out whether your school follows a flag program- if not, consider discussing with your school starting a flag program. You can obtain resources and information at airnow.gov/air-quality-flag-program. 

3- The EPA offers significant educational materials geared for kids as well, you can find out more about those resources at Airnow.gov, including videos in Spanish and English about air quality. 

4- Our climate is changing and leading to increased wildfire smoke events. Do what you can in your community to address climate change and help mitigation plans, such as plans for clean indoor air. 

5- Learn more about the AQI from Dr. Rosser in the episode “What’s in an Index?” and about PM2.5 from “What’s in a Standard” episode with Dr. Costa. These are both available in Season Two of the podcast. Learn more about ozone, the other component of the AQI from the “Money & Lives” episode from last season. 

6- Consider a donation to the American Lung Association, who in addition to supporting those with lung disease, is constantly fighting for clean air for all. 

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