As the state’s air quality director, it’s my mission to help protect the health of our citizens, especially the most vulnerable, from the effects of bad air quality.

We just concluded the annual winter No Burn Day public health campaign in Maricopa County, and the results were not good. As you likely know from your own experience, air quality over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays was exceptionally bad, with soot concentrations exceeding federal health standards as a result of wood burning activities and personal fireworks use.

While a single person’s wood burning or fireworks display may not seem like a lot, collectively over the entire Valley it adds up to a major health concern for us all, and especially those with heart and lung problems.

I thank the many Maricopa County residents who voluntarily heed the wood burning restrictions on designated No Burn Days and encourage those who do burn to burn better by using natural gas, propane or other commercially available wood burning alternatives.

Please be judicious in your use of personal fireworks, too. Just because you can set them off doesn’t mean you should when you can see and smell for yourself how the smoke and soot collect around you.