Air Quality Awareness Week (AQAW) 2022 has been designated as May 2 – May 6. AQAW corresponds with ozone season, wildfire season, and World Asthma Day. The theme for AQAW 2022 is “Be Air Aware & Prepared.”
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Earth Day is celebrated every year on April 22. This year’s Earth Day theme is “invest in our planet”. We are on this planet together and together we can invest our time, energy, and effort, to protect and preserve this planet we call Earth for ourselves and future generations.
As citizens of the Earth and South Carolina, we can actively invest in our planet by:
Participating in Citizen Science projects/programs. These projects/programs are something you can do year-round. Citizen science is when people collect data through observation of the physical world and report it to the scientific community. They range from global efforts such as the Great Back Yard Bird Count to local programs such as SC Adopt a Beach and SC Adopt a Stream programs.
Learn more about South Carolina’s environment by participating in local state park programs and events. State Park programs and events cater to all ages and interest from the mountains to the sea, including interpretive nature walks, interactive exhibits, and other outdoor adventures.
Some things you can do to invest time, energy, and effort, around your community and in your own yard include:
To learn more about what you can do to celebrate Earth Day, visit DHEC’s Make Every Day Earth Day webpage.
Spring is here and that means the return of the ozone forecasting season, which for South Carolina is April 1st through September 30.
As it heats up in the Palmetto state and we drive our vehicles, the exhaust mixes with other pollutants and contributes to ground-level ozone in our atmosphere. Under certain conditions, ozone levels can be high enough that an “Ozone Action Day,” or “orange day” alert, is issued. High levels can adversely impact people who are sensitive to ozone pollution, especially children, the elderly, and those with breathing problems.
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Beginning in 1995, the Midlands Aiken Environmental Affairs office of DHEC became the home base for Environmental Surveillance and Oversight Program (ESOP) . This program was established through an agreement between the Department of Energy-Savannah River (DOE-SR) and DHEC to provide non-regulatory, environmental monitoring of the Savannah River Site, a post-Cold War-era nuclear material production facility that is on a 310-square mile area located 20 miles south of Aiken.
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January is National Radon Action Month, and DHEC is encouraging all South Carolinians to test their homes for radon. You can request a free home test kit by clicking here.
Radon is a cancer-causing, radioactive gas that you cannot see, smell or taste. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that it is the second leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers.
Any home can have a radon problem. The only way to determine if your home is trapping radon gas is to test.
Quick Facts about Radon:
The South Carolina Radon Program provides a radon test kit to homeowners free of charge. To learn more about radon or request your free home test kit, please click here.
Live Healthy S.C. 