Today KPCC's Deepa Fernandes reported on a twenty year USC study released Wednesday that found Children's lung development in urban Los Angeles has significantly improved due to better air quality.
The research, published in the March 5th edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, found the region’s steep decline in air pollution since the mid-1990s is strongly associated with “statistically and clinically significant improvements” in children’s lung function and growth." (http://www.latimes.com/...)
The Los Angeles Basin was once notorious for smog. The indigenous Chumash peoples called it the "Valley of Smoke." I remember after playing tennis in Long Beach in the 1980s my lungs actually ached and I couldn't breathe normally for two days.
But "Southern California's air has cleared up dramatically in response to years of strict pollution-control rules targeting cars, diesel trucks, power plants, sea ports, consumer products and factories." (latimes.com) The improvement in air quality is something that has been verified scientifically for a long time, but what is significant here is that this study proves the direct relationship of this cleaner air to the pulmonary function of our children.
This is something that has a direct impact on my own family, as my 15 year old daughter is a nationally ranked high school distance runner, and as a sophomore is already receiving letters of interest from Division I schools. I have to believe that if she had been born 20 years earlier these opportunities might not be available to her. In contrast, my wife grew up in Riverside, CA in the 1970s, and had the double whammy of being raised by cigarette smoking parents. Her lungs have always been weak and about seven years ago she was diagnosed with life threatening pulmonary disease that doctors essentially blame on childhood exposure to indoor and outdoor pollution. She basically has the lungs of a smoker even though she was never a smoker herself. In fact about three years ago she was actually put on the waiting list for a lung transplant, a very frightening reality for us all. Fortunately, with medication, yoga, careful living, oxygen, some alternative therapies and substantially improved air quality she has actually shown improved lung function and was taken off the transplant list.
And whom do my family and the rest of us Angelinos have to thank for this improved air quality? As it turns out, government regulations have actually made the L.A. Basin a healthier place for children to breathe and run and play. Researchers found that "children’s lungs grew faster as air quality improved." Who would have thought? Well, actually progressives, environmentalists, Democrats and, buckle your seat belts, breathe in, breathe out, even some Republicans--the Clean Air Act of 1970 as well as the Environmental Protection Agency were signed into law by President Nixon, and the amendments of 1990 were signed into law by George H. W. Bush.
The effects of these laws have been very positive. In the United States between 1970 and 2006, citizens enjoyed the following reductions in annual pollution emissions:[2]
carbon monoxide emissions fell from 197 million tons to 89 million tons
nitrogen oxide emissions fell from 27 million tons to 19 million tons
sulfur dioxide emissions fell from 31 million tons to 15 million tons
particulate emissions fell by 80%
lead emissions fell by more than 98%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The USC study details the two-decade long process of following more than 2,000 children in the same geographic locations. USC researchers say local, state and federal air quality regulations have helped clear the air, and they see the results in kids' lungs. http://www.scpr.org/...
Bolding is mine.
Past good acts aside, present day Republicans spend their "pro-child" energy on protecting fetuses and cutting supplemental nutrition assistance, promoting school voucher programs and defunding public education, trying to cut funding for the EPA and restricting access to health care for poor mothers. Federal and State government programs to regulate pollution, which are now proven to help our children, are considered to be job killers.
In the modern day Republican playbook, corporate profits trump the health of our children. After his reelection last November Mitch McConnell stated that his top priority was “to try to do whatever I can to get the EPA reined in.” http://thinkprogress.org/...
McConnell told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he is convinced that coal has a future and that he feels a “deep responsibility” to stop the EPA from regulating carbon dioxide emissions at coal-burning power plants. He is calling on all Republicans to help him in his crusade to block the Obama administration’s efforts to promote low carbon, clean energy.
We need to shout as loud as we can, over and over, that these government regulations are working to improve the health of our children and as evidenced in California, they do not impede job creation and stunt economic growth. We still have more to do and must continue to move forward toward a cleaner and safer environment. Hands off the EPA Senator McConnell!