The Health Professionals for Clean Air is coordinated by the American Lung Association in California and works to advance public policy that will improve air quality and fight global warming in order to reduce the effect of poor air quality on public health.  Health partners include statewide and regional health and medical organizations, as well as individual health professionals.

Sign up here to get involved with the Health Professionals for Clean Air!

The Health Professionals for Clean Air has been a critical voice in the passage of key laws and regulations to make California a healthier place to live:

• The Clean Cars Law (AB 1493) requires car companies to make cleaner cars with extremely low emissions of greenhouse gases for 2009 to 2016 model years.
  
  Advanced Clean Cars standards - adopted in 2012, requires car companies to produce even cleaner vehicles from 2017 to 2025, including a requirement that approximately 15 percent of vehicles sold in 2025 be powered by zero emission technologies.
  
  
• The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) sets the nation’s first cap on greenhouse gas emissions. AB 32 establishes a statewide target to reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020 – a 25 percent reduction. This law also establishes a system to monitor progress and make sure that the emission reductions are made on schedule.
  
  
• Sustainable Communities Act (SB 375) requires the California Air Resources Board to establish regional reduction targets of greenhouse gases in consultation with local agencies.  The law also calls for metropolitan planning organizations to include sustainable or alternative community strategies in their regional transportation plans.
  
  
• Low Carbon Fuel Standard requires suppliers to reduce the carbon content of fuels sold in California by 10 percent by 2020.  This is the nation’s first regulation to reduce the carbon content of fuels.
  
  
• Diesel regulations to clean up harmful and toxic emissions from dirty on-road and off-road diesel engines, vehicles and equipment including trucks, buses, and goods movement at ports.                                            

Despite these and other efforts, more than 90 percent of Californians live in areas with unhealthy air, and 9,200 people die each year due to respiratory problems aggravated by air pollution. Global warming also poses a serious threat to public health, as rising temperatures leads to more air pollution. 

Currently there are more than 300 physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and other health professionals, and more than 100 health and medical organizations
throughout California that are part of the Health Professionals for Clean Air.

Partner organizations include:  
American Cancer Society
American Heart Association, Western States Affiliate
American Academy of Pediatrics – California District
Breast Cancer Fund
Breathe California
California Academy of Family Physicians
California Medical Association
California Nurses Association
California Thoracic Society
Community Action to Fight Asthma
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
Fresno-Madera Medical Society
Health Officers Association of California
Hospital Council of Northern and Central California
Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma
Kern County Medical Society
Medical Advocates for Healthy Air
Merced-Mariposa County Asthma Coalition
Public Health Law and Policy
Public Health Institute
Regional Asthma Management and Prevention
Physicians for Social Responsibility (Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Sacramento chapters)
Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society
San Francisco Medical Society
Sonoma County Asthma Coalition
Sonoma County Department of Health Services
White Memorial Pediatric Group

For more information about the Health Professionals for Clean Air and how you can help, please contact Will Barrett at (916) 585-7663 or william.barrett@lung.org; or  Jenny Bard at (707)527-5864 ext. 1, jenny.bard@lung.org

For more information about our advocacy priorities, click here.