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 Asthma More Pollution Leaves Asthmatics Short of Breath Bush Administration Policies Hurt Houston's Health
In 2003, Houston experienced 40 unhealthy smog days-the second-most of any U.S. city that year.2 Now, because the Bush administration has weakened clean air protections, Houston's air pollution problems stand to get even worse. Linda Absy, a marketing manager and mother of a three-year-old son with asthma, deals with the consequences of Houston's poor air quality every day. "We moved to Houston from the Midwest when my son was just one year old," she says. "Within two months, he was wheezing at night and his pediatrician said he was beginning to show asthmatic symptoms." A year later, Linda changed jobs and transferred her son to an onsite daycare facility downtown. "After the move," she says, "my son's asthma became worse and his pediatrician had to put him on daily breathing treatments to keep him from having asthma attacks." Unfortunately, the Bush administration has not only failed to offer hope or help for moms like Linda, they've actually made the situation worse. Rather than enforcing proven safeguards and making sure that old, dirty factories get cleaned up, the Bush administration has made it easier for polluters to spew even more pollution into our air by creating loopholes for industry that weaken the Clean Air Act and its enforcement. The Bush administration is attempting to dramatically weaken the part of the Clean Air Act that requires America's oldest and worst-polluting factories-including power plants and refineries-to install modern pollution-control technology when they make changes that increase pollution. We know the Clean Air Act works. In 2001, the EPA reported that this provision had resulted in a reduction of at least 4 million tons of pollution from 1997-2000.3 If all power plants were using the best available technology to reduce the amount of soot they produce, we would significantly cut the number of attacks and hospitalizations caused by asthma. By exempting factories from this rule, the Bush administration is placing local communities and those downwind at increasing risk of health damage and pollution. Asthma is the nation's leading cause of school absenteeism attributed to chronic conditions, causing 14 million lost school days annually. The estimated cost of treating asthma in children under 18 years old is $3.2 billion nationwide annually.4 And asthma isn't the only health risk from smog. Combined with Houston's already disastrously high levels of refinery and chemical plant pollution-as well as notoriously heavy automobile, train, and ship traffic-the Bush administration's policies create a recipe for a serious and costly decline in air quality for Houstonians. Among other Bush administration policies that will lower Houston's air quality are plans for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) superhighway to cut through Harris County, allowing Mexican trucks, which are often older and dirtier, to pollute our air at higher rates than U.S. trucks. Few people realize just how unsafe it is to be outdoors on smoggy days, especially for children. But people with asthma and other lung diseases are having an increasingly hard time living in or near Houston. Still, the Bush administration continues to do nothing to reduce the amount of pollution-generating traffic on our highways. In fact, their policies of cutting federal dollars for public transit makes it more expensive for cities and states to pay for cleaner public transit projects which would keep more cars off of our roads. There is a better way. Houston's serious smog problem can be prevented by enforcing the law, holding polluters accountable, and requiring them to use today's best technology. When citizens demand better quality, Houston moms like Linda can breathe a little easier, and so can their children. For more information contact: Mothers for Clean Air Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Photo courtesy Linda Absy; used with permission. Up to TopHOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
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