By: Patrice Tomcik, Senior Field Director
Date: June 3, 2026
About: Docket No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-3297
To: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
My name is Patrice Tomcik and I am the Senior Field Director for Moms Clean Air Force an organization of 1.6 million moms and dads united to protect our children’s health from air pollution and climate change. I live in the town of Gibsonia located in Southwestern Pennsylvania with my husband and two children where vehicle pollution degrades our air quality and contributes to climate change.
I am asking EPA to protect the Clean Cars Standards. Strong transportation standards are crucial in protecting the health of our children and communities and must not be rolled back or delayed.
Our Mars Area school district campus (K-12) is located approximately 175 feet from the heavy trafficked State Route 228. Studies have shown that the highest daytime exposures of traffic pollution are within 500 feet of a busy road. On an average day, at least 10,000 vehicles travel this heavily congested roadway. Construction is currently underway to expand Route 228 to a four-lane highway even closer to the schools. Closing school windows and doors can help to lessen the traffic pollutant exposures, but the reality is that nitrogen oxides, fine particles, and vapors are able to readily penetrate the indoors, where they can be breathed in by young lungs.
In the evening, students attend outdoor sports practices and games at the school sports complex located near the roadway. Both my children have been exposed to this air pollution from kindergarten until high school graduation. I am concerned about the years of cumulative pollution exposure on their developing lungs – especially my youngest son who is a cancer survivor and is immune compromised.
As a mother, I try to make his home environment as healthy as possible, but I know that I can’t entirely control the air my son breathes and depend on Administrator Zeldin and EPA to do your jobs and protect him from harmful tailpipe pollution.
Unfortunately, my story is not unique since many schools across the nation are built near busy roadways because the land is cheap.
I know that children are especially impacted by pollution since their lungs and brains are still developing until early adulthood. Toxic air pollution exposures can have deleterious effects that can last a lifetime.
I am urging EPA to reject efforts to roll back or delay the clean cars rule and protect the health of all children across our nation.
Thank you
https://publicintegrity.org/environment/questions-and-answers-about-schools-and-traffic-pollution/