WHITE PLAINS – Westchester County Legislator Thomas Abinanti of Greenburgh Tuesday introduced legislation to extend and strengthen the county’s limits on idling time for all motor vehicles anywhere in the County.

“We don’t have a choice of what air we breathe,” said Abinanti, who chairs the Legislature’s Committee on Environment & Energy. “Breathing dirty air is dangerous to everyone’s health – particularly young children whose lungs are still developing.”

The new law would limit the idling time for both gasoline and diesel-powered motor vehicles in Westchester County to three minutes. The law also makes clear that the restriction on idling may be enforced by all law enforcement officials throughout the county.

The bill has its basis in the 2005 recommendations of the Westchester County Health Air Task Force, commissioned by Abinanti. The county’s anti-idling law had been amended in 2006 to reduce allowable idling time of diesel-powered vehicles from five minutes to three minutes in Westchester County.

"As evidenced by the grades of an F for Ozone and a C for 24-hour particle pollution in our recently released State of the Air: 2008 report, Westchester County residents breathe some of the dirtiest air in the state and we urge the County Board to immediately pass this important public health measure,” said Michael Seilback, senior director of Public Policy and Advocacy for the American Lung Association of New York State.