Anytime you're outdoors, consider this: Odds are you're being exposed to hazardous air pollution. Scientists say it can cripple your health and take years off your life. And what's more you are at risk even on "smog-free" days.
Playing outside can be dangerous for Hunter Huckabay. The third grader grew up in the Birmingham area and has lived with asthma most of his life.
"I don't like it that much, I wish I didn't have it because then I'd be able to run a lot more and play sports a lot more without having to go inside and get a treatment," said Hunter.
A nebulizer is Hunter's lifeline.
"When I'm hardly breathing and I go upstairs and I put this little squeezing thing in this tube and I close it and smoke comes out and it helps my breathing," said Hunter.
The fact that Birmingham ranks on many surveys as one of the nation's worst for air pollution frightens Hunter's mom, Kathy.
“It's scary. It's a very scary thought.”
Research shows living with poor air quality means you are 30% more likely to die of respiratory disease.
Asthma Specialist Dr. Kay Knight said, “It can be serious, so patients end up dying from asthma attacks. You don't have to have severe asthma to die from an asthma attack.”
And it's not just people with breathing problems, but all of us who suffer from dirty air. Emory University researcher Dr. Jeremy Sarnat says it's peeling years off our lives.
"I think the evidence right now is extremely strong showing the associations between certain types of air pollutants. Particulate matter being, I think, a major pollutant and adverse cardio-vascular outcomes including increase of irregular heartbeat, arterioscleroses, hardening of the arteries, and actually heart attacks as well,” said Sarnat.
Particulate matter, or PM 2.5, is made up of tiny particles composed of nitrates and sulfates, which can form when gases emitted from power plants, industries and automobiles react in the air.
“A fine particle is a particle two and one half centers in diameter. That's about 100ths the diameter of a human hair. The problem with those particles is because they're so small they can easily be inhaled deeply into the lungs so that they cause health problems,” said Chris Howard with ADEM.
Betty Cody has struggled a lifetime with bad air.
“You wonder how long you got, how long you're going to be here, how long you’re gonna be suffering. I have problems; breathing problems, and a lot of time you can't sleep.”
A new report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds "air pollution can be dangerous even at levels that are within the accepted air quality standards."
Cleaning up our air will cost money, but doctors and environmentalists say it's worth it. For the southeast region, air pollution adds up to $20 billion in extra healthcare costs and 11,000 excessive deaths.
“We've been given a false choice between a healthy economy and a health environment. I think that not only can we have both, but that the two are dependent on one another,” said environmentalist Jenny Dorgan.
For Hunter Huckabay, the choice is simple.
"I'd tell them not to pollute the air at all because it's bad for nature and it's bad for people with asthma."
The American Lung Association recently gave air quality in Jefferson and Shelby counties an "F" rating.
