NB Lung is leading a national campaign Wednesday to celebrate and protect clean air.

Clean Air Day was established in 1999 as a way to raise awareness about the critical resource.

Melanie Langille, CEO of NB Lung, said this is the first year that New Brunswick is taking part.

“Clean air has been at the heart of what NB Lung has been doing for probably 15 or 20 years, so this public awareness and education piece is really important to us,” said Langille.

Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton are among 50 communities from across Canada taking part in Clean Air Day.

All three New Brunswick cities offered free transit on Wednesday as a way to encourage people to take the bus.

“Your daily choices of how you get from Point A to Point B is probably the biggest source of individual emissions,” said Langille.

“We’re trying to promote a variety of transportation of options that have the least amount of impact on the environment and the air quality that we all share.”

While walking has the least amount of impact, Langille said it is not an option for everyone.

She encouraged people to consider “micromobility solutions” such as riding a bicycle or scooter.

“Public transit is fantastic because there are so many individuals in that one emission source, in the case of internal combustion buses,” said Langille.

Langille said she is excited to see municipalities like Saint John start to use electric buses because they move a lot of people with zero emissions.

She said it is important to protect the air that we all share, adding that one-in-five New Brunswickers live with chronic lung disease.

“In New Brunswick, we have a lot of folks who have COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), but we see it right across the country,” said Langille.