Solano Asthma Coalition has been anything but "idle"
Solano Asthma Coalition (SAC) has been anything but “idle” when dealing with the health hazards of vehicle idling.
Working hand-in-hand with the Public Media Center and the Yolo Solano Air Quality Management District (YSAQMD), SAC has developed several colorful eye-catching pieces to educate Solano County on the health effects of vehicle idling: 1) The Health Hazards of Vehicle Idling); 2) No Idling 101; 3) Don’t Idle bookmark; 4) Idling Gets You Nowhere!; and 5) a media piece for publication coinciding with distribution to students and staff in the six Solano County school districts.
In December 2006, The Health Hazards of Vehicle Idling (“Health Hazards”) flyer was completed and SAC was in gear and ready to begin our stop idling campaign. Health Hazards is a detailed essay on idling, how a child breathes, problems that asthma presents to children and adults, and the relationship between idling and asthma. SAC’s original goal was to distribute Health Hazards to all students and staff in all six Solano County school districts. Vacaville Unified School District (USD) kicked off our idling campaign by distributing Health Hazards to all 14,704 students and staff the week prior to Christmas, and the accompanying Health Hazards article was published in the Vacaville Reporter the same week. SAC is now in the process of distributing Health Hazards to all students and staff in four more Solano County school districts: Fairfield-Suisun USD (24,377), Travis USD (5,535), Dixon USD (4,350), and Benicia USD (5,630).
Vallejo City USD has been proactive in school bus idling and was recognized at the 2004 SAC Asthma Challenge Awards for setting an example as a proactive school district by providing a written procedure and related training for all drivers along with ongoing efforts to reinforce the benefit of the idling regulation as part of safety meetings. VCUSD strongly believes idling is the responsibility of the individual and requested Health Hazards be more community-based, with less emphasis on school bus idling. Thus, the birth of our No Idling 101 brochure. No Idling 101 debunks myths about idling, offers hard facts about the bad effects of idling, and offers tips one can do to clean the air.
SAC’s Don’t Idle key bookmark explains why idling is bad for your car, bad for the environment, and bad for the air. The “key” bookmark starts the thought process to eliminate idling. For May, Asthma Awareness Month, Don’t Idle key bookmarks have been placed in all Solano County public libraries, as well as every Solano County school library. YSAQMD is a SAC member and generously paid for the printing of the 5,000 Don’t Idle key bookmarks.
Our Idling Gets You Nowhere! You’re the key to clean air poster delineates three simple points: 1) Start driving after no more than 30 seconds of idling – excessive idling is not good for your engine; 2) Turn your engine off if you are going to be stopped for more than 10 seconds, except in traffic; and 3) Spread the word! While the poster was developed to educate teenage drivers by posting at high schools, the poster will also be handed to drivers of idling vehicles at targeted schools during our pre-idling surveys.
S&J Advertising, a publisher and direct mailer in Solano County, published, free of charge, our Health Hazards article in their May mailer. The Monthly Grapevine reaches over 33,900 mailboxes in Vacaville, the Breeze Monthly over 37,300 mailboxes in the Fairfield area, and the Monthly Roundup reaches over 11,500 mailboxes in Dixon. Thanks to S&J Advertising, our health hazards of idling message touched 82,700 homes in Solano County during Asthma Awareness Month.
All materials are posted on the CAFA website at http://www.calasthma.org/resources/show_resource/918/, and are currently being translated to Spanish.
As you see, SAC has been anything but “idle” when dealing with the health hazards of vehicle idling and eliminating the ”American Idle” in Solano County.
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