A new national environmental group fighting for cleaner air holds its first Pittsburgh event next Wed., Aug. 22. Members of the Moms Clean Air Force, a project of the Environmental Defense Fund, meets at The Church Brew Works that night. Hosts of the Bloomfield event include the Sierra Club.

MCAF styles itself as "nap-time activists" concerned about toxic air pollution's effect on kids. According to its website, the group, led by its co-founder, journalist and author Dominique Browning, is "a national movement of more than 80,000 moms -- and dads too!" The group calls for tougher government restrictions on pollutants including soot.

Notwithstanding years of locally based activism, Pittsburgh remains ripe for help on air quality. As noted in this week's Green Light column, while the air here is much cleaner than it used to be, it's still quite dirty by national standards, giving rise to local initiatives like the Heinz Endowment's Breathe Project.