The Hatha Yoga Pradapika teaches, "As long as there is breath in the body, there is life." But what happens when the content of that breath actually threatens life?

Virtually every psychosomatic art from yoga and qigong to aerobics and pilates focus on breath as a critical part of its training and movement routines. Breath, full of oxygenated air, enhances movement, invigorates the body and its rhythmic practice knits body, mind and spirit together. The average person takes in about 500 cubic centimeters of air with each breath and in deep inhalation this can increase six-fold. Given breath's incessant and intimate interaction with our cells and psyche, it seems obviously important to question its current quality and how it affects our well-being. This summer the Sierra Club, the country's oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization, is sponsoring an educational campaign to inform Maine citizens about the air they breathe and the current business, political, and legal decisions that determine its contents.

US Environmental Protection Agency reports continue to show that our outdoor air is laden with chemical pollutants as a direct or indirect result of emissions from industries and automobiles. A few of the many air pollutants they list as major health concerns today are ozone (O3), nitrogen oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2),and carbon monoxide (CO). In spite of the nation's 32-year-old Clean Air Act, the EPA has been admittedly unable to control these emissions and guarantee clean air to the American public. Initially the Clean Air Act exempted dozens of older coal-fired plants from its new anti-pollution rules as long as those plants did not undertake major expansions, yet many of these plants have indeed expanded.

In 1990, president George Bush Sr. signed into law deep reductions in power plant emissions, giving EPA new authority under the Act to penalize polluting energy and utility industries. But these industries and the current Bush administration have declared the 1990 standards as "duplicative, inefficient, expensive, and overly regulatory." Instead George Bush Jr. has proposed the so-called Clear Skies initiative which proposes national limits for mercury, nitrogen dioxides and sulfur dioxide. While this all sounds quite beneficial, it also allows the worst polluting plants to buy pollution "credits" from plants with emissions lower than the mandated limit if they find this to be cheaper than cleaning up their own act. Environmentalists fear this option will permit the dirtiest plants - for example, those in the midwest that most affect Maine - to continue to pollute as before. Below we present recent comments on the issue from one of Maine's most active environmentalists. Maggie Drummond, local coordinator for Sierra Club's Clean Air Campaign.

1. Ms. Drummond, could you tell us what got you interested in the environment, and about your involvement in environmental movements in Maine?

I grew up in a little town called Highland Plantation near the Bigelow Preserve in west central Maine, about an hour from any grocery store. I grew up with a great appreciation for the natural environment, even as I watched timber companies destroy beautiful forests in all of the places that I loved. I stayed in Maine for college, going to Colby and then worked on environmental campaigns in Boston for several years before returning. I have been working with the Toxics Action Center helping communities fight toxic pollution in their neighborhoods, and am currently running the field education and fund raising program for the Sierra Club's Campaign for Clean Air. I also serve on the board of the Maine Wilderness Watershed Trust, a group working to protect land and forests near where I grew up.

2. What are the most pressing environmental issues facing Maine today?

Maine has many environmental problems, although this state perhaps more than any other likes to celebrate the supreme importance of the quality of life. We take great pride in our living environment here; we even trumpet it on our highway signs: "MAINE - THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE." Yet that idyllic vision is facing major perils right now. Our biggest problems are a lack of protections for our north woods, worsening air and water quality, and a waste stream that is constantly growing in both volume and toxicity.

4. You are presently coordinating the Sierra Club's Clean Air Campaign. Can you explain its importance for the country and Maine?

121 million Americans live in places where smog alone makes the air unhealthy to breathe. There are actually days when citizens are advised not to leave their homes because the air could harm their health. This, to me, is a travesty. How could we ever allow the very air we breathe to become so polluted that it is unhealthy to leave our homes?

The Sierra Club's Clean Air Campaign tackles one of our biggest public health threats: aging coal and oil-fired power plants that are allowed to pollute at levels far above the more modern plants. These older plants alone were responsible for more than one billion pounds of toxic pollutants in 1998, a worse record than any other industry except metal mining. In addition, power plants are responsible for more than 1/4 of all smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions - second only to automobiles. Air pollution generated by these plants has been linked directly to asthma, lung cancer and heart disease.

In Maine, we have the highest adult asthma rate in the country. We are considered the national tail pipe in that the emissions from these plants travel on the prevailing wind stream directly into our state. We are a direct target. Representative Tom Allen released a recent study reporting that 25 million American children live in counties where the air is considered unsafe. In Maine alone we have 20,000 children under 17 who have asthma. They constitute fully a third of our 60,000 asthma cases in the state.

Cleaning up these plants this summer, and keeping the Clean Air Act strong, would in a single year prevent: over 700 severe asthma attacks among Maine citizens; over 31,000 restricted activity days for people with respiratory problems; and over six thousand missed work days. This campaign is extremely pertinent to Maine's population and it is critical to protecting our public health.

2. How do you try to awaken lay people to the importance of environmental issues?

Environmental issues affect all of us. No one is immune from the pollution in our air, water and soil, or even the loss of open space and unprotected wilderness. Especially in an age where corporate interests take precedence over the public interest, citizens must be aware of what is going on around them and be prepared to defend our environment. This is something we all have in common.

5. Is the Maine public responsive to environmental education? What are some of the obstacles you face in your work here?

Between 70% and 80% of the people we talk to everyday really are supportive of clean air. The biggest obstacle is getting those people to become involved in its defense in some way.

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To support or find out more about the Clean Air Campaign, send your questions and/or contributions to:
The Sierra Club
136 Commercial Street, 1F
Portland, ME 04101
Phone: 207-253-8042

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Kennebunkport resident, Ms. Dixit-Kubiak is an independent health/environment researcher, yoga teacher, shiatsu therapist, and program coordinator for Big Medicine's Eco-Holistic Health Exchanges. Her email is metamed@nancho.net.