Environment

PEDIATRIC ASTHMA and OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ISSUES

Asthma rates among children across Connecticut have risen dramatically in recent years. Prevalence is highest among the poor, and Hispanic and African-American children in our cities experiencing disproportionate disability and death from asthma. It is the leading cause of missed school days. While the cause of asthma is still unknown, air pollution can make the condition worse and trigger attacks. In light of this situation, we need to reduce exposure from sources of air pollution. Cleaning up our older power plants, the "Sooty 6" by requiring them to meet current emissions standards without credit trading will reduce air pollution. Another threat to vulnerable children comes from emissions from school buses. Diesel exhaust is classified by Federal agencies as a probable human carcinogen, and it contains a mix of known carcinogens and hazardous substances. To limit children's exposure, Connecticut's 3-minute idling regulation must be enforced, and action should be taken to move toward cleaner diesel and alternative fuel school buses. Coal burning power plants and municipal incinerators are sources of mercury, a toxic metal which accumulates in rivers and becomes concentrated in fish, which are then potentially harmful to pregnant women and small children. Mercury-containing products must be phased out or properly recycled so they do not enter the waste stream, and emissions of mercury must be reduced. Clean water is essential to life. Proposed aquifer protection land use regulations, which will protect public water supplies from activities that could contaminate them, are needed to ensure public health. Principles of Environmental Justice require that low-income and minority communities are protected from discriminatory siting and concentration of facilities that cause hazardous pollution. CT Department of Environmental Protection's Environmental Equity Policy should become law. In all these issues, the unintended consequences of our otherwise useful technology and of our unplanned patterns of land development have been found to threaten our health, especially that of our most vulnerable citizens and children. The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops has said: "Our tradition calls us to protect the life and dignity of the human person and it is increasingly clear that this task cannot be separated from the care and defense of all creation."