Grant Targets Environmental Effects of Auto Repair Shops in Omaha
By Alex Fernando
June 19, 2018, 2:47 a.m. ·
A campaign to improve air quality and health in Omaha has received a 15-thousand dollar grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust. The project brings together the Nebraska Business Development Center and students from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. They’ll work to target chemicals released by common cleaners used in automotive repair shops.
Some of these chemicals can contribute to smog levels and are harmful to the health of exposed workers. The goal of the project is to provide alternatives to the harmful chemicals for various shops around Omaha to use.
“So what we’re doing is trying to motivate these shops to use some different alternatives that are a little healthier for them and a little cleaner fair. Basically, if they tag along with the project we give them alternatives to try out. If they like them, we go ahead and buy them a case of their favorite alternative hoping to cater them into a new behavior of wanting to be more green, and use that greener product,” student worker Justus Cipolla said.
The next steps of the project include finding more automotive repair shops willing to participate. Cipolla believes this research is critically important to the health of both the workers and Omaha’s air quality.
"Omaha's air level is actually at a point where it is almost needed to be regulated by the EPA because there is so much smog in the air. So working to lower the VOCs (volatile organic compounds) is good because it can kind of save us from hitting that brink where we'll have to start having regulations," Cipolla said.
For the automotive repair shops that do switched to the new, greener products, Cipolla and his colleagues plan to reward them with advertising support on social media and other media outlets. They hope this will entice more shops to switch to environmentally friendly products while also encouraging the public to take their business to those shops striving to help the environment.