Clean air. PVC off-gassing. Carbon monoxide and greenhouse gasses in LA. Ventilation, air filters and indoor plants. Outdoor exercise. Pranyama (breath techniques).

Here in Los Angeles , clean air is a daily issue. Angelenos more than anyone in the country feel the decision of the US to decline participation in the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, just like we feel the slowness of the US auto industry to pursue low emission technologies, and the dominance of cars over public transportation. LA is the heart of car and freeway culture, and as a result, most of the time we live and breathe in a big fat layer of toxic carbon gasses. The LA Weekly did a very thorough cover story on air pollution in one of its 2005 issues that charted air quality throughout the greater LA area along with cancer rates. The correspondences are clear. The statistics are particularly stark around the Long Beach port area where diesel trucks carry products from docks inland, but don't think you're spared if you live anywhere else. Air pollution is pervasive in the LA basin, and depending on which way the wind blows, can even extend far out into the ocean. As I will review in the section on Fire, air pollution comes from combusting trees, coal and refined oil to extract the solar energy stored by plants through photosynthesis (both coal and oil are ancient compressed plant matter). Those of you out there working on bio-diesel, solar panel technologies, wind turbines, or other alternative energies that have cleaner emissions, hurry up! We're all counting on you.

Obviously, we need clean air to breathe. Particularly we need oxygen. All mammals live off oxygen, and release carbon dioxide as a waste product. All trees and plants live off carbon dioxide, and release oxygen in the process. Therein lies our relationship with trees and plants: they need us, we need them. Now we put cars in the picture: all combustion engine cars emit carbon monoxide. And therein lies the problem that the Kyoto Protocol is trying to address: the rate at which we are cutting down trees and emitting carbon monoxide is increasing the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and reducing the atmospheric levels of oxygen. Humans need oxygen obviously. We can't do anything with carbon dioxide but exhale it as a waste product, and carbon monoxide that comes from car and industrial exhaust can be deadly to us. We all know that closing a running car in a garage is a sure way to kill yourself. Carbon monoxide in the human body permanently bonds with an O 2 molecule in the first available red blood cell, making that cell useless (unable to carry and release an O 2 molecule) for the rest of its lifespan. This is why people should not leave their cars running while parked next to school children or people sitting at an outdoor café. Not only is it rude, it's unhealthy. You should avoid breathing carbon monoxide whenever possible. I'm always curious when I see runners running along highly trafficked streets with lots of cars where the educational system let them down. Deep breathing outdoor exercise is always good for the human body, but take that exercise in the cleanest air source you have access to. Take the side streets at least, and if you can get to the hillside trails or beach or to some park with trees for that walk, jog or hike, all the better.

As bad as outdoor air can be in LA, indoor air is often worse, particularly in large buildings with poorly designed or artificial ventilation systems. The reason is PVC and formaldehyde off-gassing. Polyvinyl chloride is one of the most toxic chemicals known to man. It's a plastic mixed with other chemicals to produce the accoutrements of modern living, including everything from plumbing pipes and car interiors to synthetic fiber carpets and luggage to shower curtains and even yoga mats. The gas you inhale from PVC-based products is phthalates which can damage lungs and immune system. In addition to PVC, formaldehyde is used in many glues for building construction, and can off-gas from cabinets and panels and such. Like the water situation in southern California , the air issue requires a high level of consciousness about the choices you do have. Those choices can make a profound effect on your health. You need to be proactive to secure clean air zones in your home and at work, considering ventilation, air filters , and indoor plants to keep fresh clean oxygen available. Air out your home regularly by opening up windows for cross-ventilation, particularly during the early morning hours before traffic starts up. Buy a quality air filter. Some of them are quite expensive, but in LA they are a necessity. Calculate filters into the cost; you may find the more expensive ones that have cle ana ble filters may be more cost effective over the long run because you don't have to buy replacement filters that quickly clog. Indoor plants and plant walls along outdoor windows and doorways guarantee fresh oxygen, and are inexpensive and calming to tend to.

As a consumer, choose products that are PVC free. Look for the letter V or the number 3 inside the recycle circle on bottles to determine the presence of PVC. Remove PVC articles, like luggage, to outdoor sheds or garages and ventilate those areas regularly. Ventilate new cars well when you first purchase. If you can smell that "new car smell," ventilate more. Do a clean sweep of your home to create a clean air zone by removing as many plastics as possible. Purchase furniture for homes and toys for children that are PVC free (i.e., made of natural materials, like wood and natural fibers). Throw out your PVC shower curtain and yoga mat and replace with non-toxic natural products. Choose products by businesses that refuse to use plastic PVC packaging. And give your business to companies that have committed to removing PVC from their products. Do research. A recent article in the June 2006 Yogi Times by Ted McDonald entitled "PVC" notes that Honda and Toyota are phasing out use of PVC, as is IKEA.

I encourage all my clients to take up a yoga practice or pranyama (deep breathing) practice to learn how to oxygenate the brain and body regularly. Without fresh oxygen, we quickly stagnate and weaken. And it's very common for certain emotional postures to be accompanied by shallow breathing or the holding of the breath. Everyone I work with begins the healing journey to onebodymind wholeness by listening to the breath and learning how to breathe calmly, deeply and easily even under stress.

The breath of life is not just a metaphor. When we say we can't breathe in our environments at home or at work, we need to move to where the fresh air is, we need to take a walk outdoors and be with nature, tend to our gardens, and take a deep breath. We need to step away from the stress and breathe easy, so we can return re-energized, re-vitalized and renewed. Breathing freely is the essence of life, from our first breath to our last, this is how we know how to detoxify and replenish, and also let go of the past and come back to the present-one breath at a time. We count on that breath being able to oxygenate us, not poison us. And for that reason, we need to be proactive about protecting clean air in our environment.

Clean air is really what all those tree-sitting activists are fighting for, not just the tree itself, but the tree and the root system and the ground water held in place by the roots, and the CO 2 -to-O 2 filtering and regeneration system that each tree participates in. We need trees, particularly the very old large trees that have many, many branches and leaves making that fundamental exchange of CO 2 in and O 2 out that has allowed human beings to sur viv e and evolve.