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Exchange Exemplar: Why We're Still Choked Up By Air Pollution

The first Earth Day was 51 years ago, didn't we get a handle on air pollution quite a while ago? The short answer is no.

The United States did pass the Clean Air Act and create the Environmental Protection Agency, but other countries did not go as far to protect their citizens' ability to breathe. And even our pollution rules could use a tune-up, as environmental journalist Beth Gardiner reports in her book Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution.

The conversation is pre-COVID (2019), but the threats to a good, deep breath of fresh air remain.

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The Jefferson Exchange is Jefferson Public Radio's daily news program focused on issues, people and events across Southern Oregon and Northern California. Angela Decker is the program's senior producer, Charlie Zimmermann is the assistant producer, and Geoffrey Riley hosts the show.