What would you do?

How would you feel if I told you that by living in your chosen city, you have elevated your risk of having cancer -- and your children's risk? Pittsburghers learned exactly how it feels last week when the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC) released a report that said just that.

As part of its Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threat Analysis (PRETA), CHEC concluded that residents of southwestern Pennsylvania, particularly those in Allegheny County, have a significantly higher than acceptable risk of developing cancer due to exposure to air toxics. In fact, Allegheny County places in the top 2 percent of U.S. counties in terms of cancer risk.

It's pretty scary stuff. Reports like CHEC's are often dismissed by policymakers and citizens alike, but this one resonates in a way that others haven't because it feels so personal. What would you do to reduce your cancer risk? Would you switch to a clean energy provider? Take public transit? Stop idling in your car? Write the mayor-elect to tell him how important it is to you that Pittsburgh addresses air toxics? 

Maybe what you do isn't as important as the act of choosing to do something. I challenge our wonderful readers to make that choice this week. If you do, please tweet your action to us at @PennFuture. For more suggestions, check out these actions from the Breathe Project, or the recommendations in the shared statement we put out with our environmental partners last week.

Tiffany Hickman is PennFuture's western Pennsylvania outreach coordinator, based in Pittsburgh.