Dr. Winifred J. Hamilton, a GHASP volunteer

According to a recent publication produced by the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP), over the past three years ozone smog levels in Houston exceeded federal health standards more often than in any other place in the United States.

The report explains that excessive amounts of ozone—a corrosive gas primarily formed from pollution on still, hot, bright days—can reduce breathing capacity and increase susceptibility to allergens, colds and other respiratory infections. It is especially dangerous to asthmatics, the elderly and children.

Fortunately, in order to comply with federal health standards by 2007, Houstonians now are working to clean up the area’s air, and GHASP has been an active participant in the complex, controversial effort. “Where details are being discussed at meetings about improving Houston’s air quality, GHASP is the foremost organization advocating on behalf of citizens,” explains executive director John Wilson. “We’re the ones who try to ensure that government and industry are held to very high standards in terms of developing a clean air plan for Houston that will work.”

For 12 years, GHASP volunteers have worked to improve Houston’s air by participating diligently in hearings, forming task forces, serving on relevant committees and producing well-researched publications. GHASP volunteer Winifred J. Hamilton, an assistant professor of neurosurgery and medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, says, “I’ve lived in Houston 25 years, and most of the progress in cleaning the air and drawing attention
to the issue has been fueled by the efforts of local citizens and most often by GHASP.”
Five years ago, GHASP overcame opposition to publishing daily reports about levels of ozone in Houston’s air. “GHASP took the lead in putting together a coalition of organizations and medical groups that sought the go-ahead from Mayor Lanier to issue official ozone advisories,” explains Dr. Hamilton. “Essentially, we let people know when they were being exposed to high levels of ozone.”

More recently, GHASP worked closely with elected officials, industry leaders and civic organizations to fashion a government-approved plan for cleaning Houston’s air. Mr. Wilson says, “Industry has been asked in the current plan to perform a lot of the cleanup, and they are. But there’s a difference between what they are willing to do and what’s needed. GHASP is trying to close that gap by, for instance, focusing attention on the region’s transportation system, which virtually has been untouched by the plan except for lower speed limits and the vehicle inspection program, there has been no rethinking
of our transportation system and how it works and whether it will serve us into the future. If the plan is implemented as it is now written, the transportation of goods and people will be the biggest source of pollution in Houston in 2007.”

When asked about the efficacy of the new lower speed limit, Dr. Hamilton responds, “When you’re talking about 4 million people, the smallest actions can make a huge difference.” Mr. Wilson, who has undergraduate degrees in physics and history from Rice University and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard, says, “I think the challenge about understanding solutions to air quality is realizing that it does involve a lot of little actions. Pollution comes from many sources, and while industry is going to be a big part of the solution, other pieces of the program, such as vehicle emissions testing and lower speed limits, add up. It’s like fund-raising. You can’t rely on one donor for all of your money; you must have diverse funding sources to make an organization financially stable. The same thing is true for cleaning our air. We need a diverse set of programs getting at every single source of air pollution and reducing them as much as possible.”

Dr. Hamilton adds, “These are not punitive measures. When we start talking about speed limits and testing, people immediately begin talking in terms of numbers and often forgetting that we’re talking about people’s health. GHASP is determined to keep human health in the forefront of cleaning the air and creating a better Houston.”

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