The number of people with asthma in the United States has doubled since 1980, and now 1 in 10 children have the disease. Thousands of people die from asthma per year.
One of the major causes is air pollution. Fossil fuel emissions, like ozone and soot, don't only trigger asthma attacks--they can also play a part in the development of the disease.
The EPA has been trying to implement new clean air standards and regulations in order to combat this problem. But people who are affiliated with the fossil fuel industry are playing politics in order to halt stricter regulations to help stop this epidemic.
Their reasoning is that it will hurt the economy, but sick people hurt the economy-- asthma cost the United States 56 billion dollars in 2007 alone. Meanwhile, implementing the EPA's regulations would lead to $1 trillion dollars worth of benefits for the country.
Please tell Congress to stop playing politics and protect clean air to protect the health of Americans and their kids.
Please stop playing politics with environmental regulations in order to protect the fossil fuel industry. Asthma is growing into an epidemic, especially in children, with 1 in 10 children suffering from the disease with worse, more frequent attacks. The main cause for this is air pollution, which, going unregulated, not only causes disease but also contributes to many environmental problems such as global warming.
Asthma cost the United States 56 billion dollars in 2007 and in general, an economy cannot function without healthy people -- this hurts the economy much more than regulations ever will.
People and health matter more than anything. Do the right thing.
