ALBANY, N.Y., July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The New York State Department of Transportation announced that today, July 28, 2009, is an Air Quality Action Day, a day when air quality will be unhealthy, especially for sensitive individuals, such as children, seniors and people with asthma and other respiratory ailments, due to forecasted high levels of ground-level ozone pollution. The alert is issued for the New York downstate metropolitan region (the five boroughs, Long Island and lower Hudson Valley). This is the second alert of the week.

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Recent studies have shown that poor air quality can cause respiratory and heart disease, restrict fetal growth and even cause premature death. Transportation -- primarily cars and trucks -- accounts for about 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. While today will still be a day when New Yorkers can go about most of their daily activities, such as going to work, the New York State Department of Transportation encourages metro area residents to leave their cars at home and/or stay indoors as much as possible.

To help prevent air pollution on an Air Quality Action Day, New York area residents are asked to take the following simple steps:

• Stay indoors when possible.
• Combine errands into a single trip, rather than separate trips.
• Take the subway, bus or train to and from work or other destinations.
• Share a ride by carpooling or vanpooling. To find a carpool partner or vanpool, visit nycommute.org or 511ny.org<
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