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Air: More Pollution Leaves Asthmatics Short of Breath
When asked what he wants to do most of all, Kevin Hall of Franklin County, Ohio, says plainly, "I want to play on a basketball team." Unfortunately, 10 year-old Kevin, who has had asthma since he was three, has never been able to play a team sport and has to be careful doing any physical activity, especially outdoors. Kevin's asthma is so severe that he missed 72 days of school last year and by his doctor's orders is not even allowed to go to school when the temperature rises above 80 degrees because air quality is poorer at higher temperatures. Even though air quality has improved in many regions of the country since the Clean Air Act was enacted in 1970, EPA estimates that 159 million Americans continue to breathe dirty, unhealthy air.1 Soot and smog from industrial facilities can increase the frequency and severity of asthma attacks. In Ohio, nearly 3 million children and older adults are at risk from air pollution.2 Now the Bush administration is weakening clean air protections by giving coal-fired power plants a pass on reducing soot and smog pollution, a process called New Source Review. Thanks to this policy, Ohio's air pollution problems stand to get worse before they get better.
When asked about her son's medication, Renee says, "My son is ten and the medications he is on now I know aren't good for him. All those steroids, they aren't good for his lungs, his heart, or his liver. I asked his doctors what are the long-term effects of his medication; what are they going to do to his future? They looked me in the face and said, 'You can't worry about your son's future.'" Ohio power plants release more sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions than those in any other state.3 These pollutants lead to soot and smog in the air, making it harder for people to breathe-especially those suffering from asthma and other respiratory diseases. If the current Clean Air Act was fully enforced and all facilities in Ohio were to use the best available pollution control technology, it would reduce pollution in the state by 937,000 tons each year.4 Instead, the Bush administration has made it easier for polluters to pump even more pollution into our air by creating loopholes that weaken the Clean Air Act and its enforcement. The administration has failed to enforce proven safeguards which ensure that old dirty power plants get cleaned up, and which mandate that the oldest and dirtiest power plants and refineries install modern preventative equipment when making changes that increase pollution. The Bush administration has created a huge exception for utilities from this rule, placing local communities and those downwind at increasing risk for health problems. Since Kevin began his battle with asthma, Renee Hall has noticed that she is not alone in her struggle. Just in her church, Renee says, "I knew of six kids that had nebulizers besides my son in a congregation of maybe 75 people. There has to be something going on when so many children have asthma." According to the Columbus Health Department, more than 100,000 people in Franklin County have been diagnosed with asthma. In 2000, 8.5 percent of children in Franklin County were diagnosed with the condition; in 2002, that number rose to 9.2 percent. In 1998, there were 3,337 visits to the Children's Hospital emergency room for asthma attacks; by 2003, that number had risen to 4,587.5 Thirty years of progressively cleaner air shows that we have the know-how to reduce pollution. But by consistently siding with the coal and utility industries, the Bush administration is putting polluters' profits ahead of people's health. There is a better way. We must better enforce the law, hold polluters accountable, and require them to use today's technology to protect our health and safety. Renee finds herself frustrated with the Bush administration's air pollution policies. "If the policymakers ever had to go through what we do on a daily basis, then they would know how their decisions are affecting us," she says. If Kevin's asthma gets any worse, the only option the Hall family may have left is moving to an area with better air quality, even though moving means leaving their friends, family, home, and everything that they have known their whole lives. For more information contact:
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