F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway debated the difference between the rich and the poor. Was it only money? I think I know the crux: the rich don’t have lungs. They breath through some other apparatus, maybe invisible gills, like the hero of the failed Kevin Costner zillion-dollar Waterworld. Or maybe their innards thrive on stuff that makes lung-people gasp.
At least that is one explanation for the disinterest to bored silence to mock concern that has greeted the latest “State of the Air” report from the American Lung Association — admittedly, an avowed interest group that doesn’t hide its constituency under an euphemistic monniker, like the Blue Sky Group. Right up front the American Lung Association makes clear its advocacy: lung-people. And only lung-people.
But the smoggy air — which is getting smoggier — has alarmed lung-people. The Environmental Protection Agency monitors ozone in counties throughout the country, and the Air Quality Index sets standards for ozone pollution. This past year the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” (www.lungusa.org) gave 383 counties (58% of the counties monitored) “failing” grades, up from 333 counties in the previous year’s tally. More than half the counties with EPA monitors got “F”; 141 million people live in those counties, inhaling the ozone-rich air. You can search the grim report card for your city. The 25 most polluted cities — a staple feature of “State of the Air” — have five newcomers: Baton Rouge, Richmond-Petersburg, Louisville, Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point, Chattanooga.
Smog is not an accident of nature. Although sunlight contributes to the formation of ozone; and the past summer’s intense heat contributed to the soaring ozone readings, nature has human allies in producing the smog that hovers like a shroud over much of America on hot summer days. Diesel fuel and emissions from coal-burning plants are major culprits.
The technical solution is simple. Retool trucks, buses and cars to spew forth less of the stuff that will make us sick. As for older coal-burning plants, make them hue to the same Clean Air Act standards applied to newer plants. Our engineers and scientists know how to clean up the air.
The problem is that our politicians and industry moguls don’t want to. Of course, cleaning up the air will cost lots of money. But so do hospitalizations and time lost for asthma attacks, bronchitis, and respiratory infections. The Lung Association estimates that almost 3.6 million adults with asthma and 1.9 million children with asthma live in counties with ozone-rich air.
Joan Retsinas is a former executive director of the Rhode Island Health Care Policy and Planning Consortium. Her column appears regularly.
