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Multnomah County’s Office of Sustainability announces it’s association with OTA and our Healthy Air Oregon campaign to encourage drivers to turn off their engines while waiting on drawbridges this Summer. Together we are raising awareness about the personal and public health risks of idling and cost savings available to individual drivers and businesses of all kinds by ending the practice of idling while not in nthe flow of traffic. Read more about Multnomah County’s “Idling Gets You Nowhere” campaign. See more about Oregon Toxics Alliance

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Oregon Toxics Alliance
The Healthy Air Oregon campaign is a project of Oregon Toxics Alliance, an Oregon-based non-profit dedicated to fighting for greater awareness of the presence of toxics in our air, water, food and bodies.

Through the Healthy Air Oregon campaign, the Oregon Toxics Alliance has engaged in a variety of partnerships with business, government and non-profits that are helping consumers and citizens raise their awareness about the cost benefits and public health benefits of ending the practice of idling.

The goal of Healthy Air Oregon
The Healthy Air Oregon project raises public awareness about both the dangers of benzene exposure and greenhouse gases, and the simple steps everyone can take to make a positive impact for clean air. One step is reducing car and truck idling.

Benzene in Oregon’s air
Benzene is a toxic air pollutant that can cause serious health effects including cancer. Oregon currently has some of the highest reported levels of benzene in the United States. Gasoline is the major source of that benzene.  Benzene gets into our air through tailpipe exhaust.

Health effects of benzene
Current medical research demonstrates a clear association between various detrimental health effects and repeated exposure to benzene in occupational settings. Laboratory animal studies have confirmed the harmful effects of repeated exposure to high levels of benzene. Health effects include cancer (primarily leukemia) and damage to the nervous system, immune system and blood cell production. Cancer is a disease caused by a complex combination of factors that are difficult to link back to a specific environmental pollutant.  The Oregon Public Health Division and DEQ are concerned about any additional cancer burden. The last set of estimates in 2002 indicated that benzene was more than 20 times over the acceptable cancer risk of one in a million, about twice the national cancer risk for this pollutant. [MORE about the dangers of benzene]

Limiting our exposure to benzene
The State of Oregon has several programs to reduce benzene.  For example, Oregon law now prohibits attendants from topping off vehicle fuel tanks during refueling. Topping off causes gasoline drips and spills that increase public exposure to harmful pollution, wastes fuel, and causes vapor recovery equipment in vehicles and at gas pumps to malfunction.

What you can do to reduce benzene
There are many things people can do on their own to reduce benzene and other air toxics in the environment:

• Avoid unnecessary idling – turn off  your motor when stopping for more than 30 seconds (not in traffic)
• Keep vehicles properly maintained
• Drive less

The Healthy Air Oregon campaign won significant changes (effective July 1, 2009) in Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) rules that 1) require the use of vapor control devices at gas stations and 2) require an end to the practice of topping off gas tanks during fill up at all Oregon gas stations. OTA worked tirelessly with gas station owners, refueling companies, auto repair shops and health organizations to spur the DEQ to implement statewide, non-legislative rule changes to require emission control devices at the time that underground gas storage tanks are being refilled.

OTA’s Mission:
Oregon Toxics Alliance works for all Oregonians to expose root causes of toxic pollution and help communities find solutions that protect human and environmental health.