10 SIMPLE WAYS TO HELP CLEAR THE AIR

1. Gas up your vehicle at night. Ground level ozone--or smog--is formed when chemicals from car exhaust mix with sunlight. If you gas up when there's no sunlight, you lessen the chance to create smog.

2. Keep your automobile maintained. Cars that are tuned, with properly inflated tires and new air filters, not only use less gasoline, but they also run cleaner.

3. Reduce your idling while waiting for your children at school or while visiting drive-thru windows at restaurants, banks, cleaners, etc.  An idling engine emits unnecessary pollution into the air. Besides, most of the time it's faster to walk in and get personal service!

4. "Trip-chain" by organizing and combining several errands into one outing. Try to organize your honey-do's and multiple stops all into one trip. It will save wear and tear on the car and keep the car from experiencing cold starts.

5. Avoid lawn mowing on Air Quality Action Days, unless you have an electric mower. Some gasoline-powered lawn mowers emit as much pollution in one hour as a car driven for over 8 hours!

6. Limit charcoal grill usage on Alert Days. Charcoal lighter fluid evaporates when it burns, causing chemicals to rise into the air and allowing smog to form.

7. Carpool. Sharing a ride takes one car off of the road for every rider. It eases congestion and makes for new friends. For information on the Rideshare carpool matching service, call 540-635-4146.

8. Try not to "top-off" the tank when gassing up a vehicle. Gasoline spillage evaporates into the air. Topping off occurs when people want to squeeze an "extra few cents" of gasoline into a tank that's already full.

9. Limit use of oil-based paints. Solvents and oil-based paints contribute to ground level ozone. Traditional water-based paints have very low levels of solvents, about 2-10%, whereas oil-based paints contain higher amounts of solvents, about 30%.

10. Take a walk or ride a bicycle when possible. It's good exercise and it can keep extra motor vehicles off of the roadways.