May marks the beginning of ozone season. It’s a perfect time to promote the use of air quality forecasts and public
awareness of how air quality can affect individual’s health. To help increase this awareness, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are encouraging people to
“Be Air Aware: Keep an Eye on the AQI” as part of Air Quality Awareness Week, April 30 – May 4, 2007.
We know many of you are already planning air quality awareness events for this week. If you’re not, you may want to
consider doing so. Air Quality Awareness Week is a great opportunity to urge people to check air quality forecasts,
learn about what causes poor air quality, and determine what they can do to help make our air cleaner – not just
during ozone season, but year round.
We’ve developed the attached Event Planning Kit to make your job easier! This Kit provides information and materials
that you can use to plan and execute small or large scale outreach in your state, local, and tribal areas. Use these
resources to conduct activities that will reduce your community’s exposure to outdoor pollution. These materials are
designed to be customized, so you can tailor them to fit the needs of your initiative.
We are planning to promote state and local Air Quality Awareness Week events on the AIRNow web site, and we
would love to include your efforts. Please visit www.airnow.gov/airaware for help in planning and publicizing your Air
Quality Awareness events and to submit your event details
Your outreach efforts play a critical role in increasing Americans awareness of air quality issues and how people can
take action to reduce pollution and decrease their exposure to unhealthy air. We wish you the best as you plan your
air quality awareness event and we look forward to learning about your success.