This post is by Ronnie and Lamar Tyler, from Black and Married
with Kids.
I have been shopping, packing, and organizing for weeks now, as I prepare to send my oldest son off to college to start his freshman year.
- Toiletries – check,
- comforter and sheets – check
- school supplies – check
- Inhaler – check.
Yes, I have to make sure he has an inhaler as he has asthma. For the most part, he does not need it anymore. But he is going to a new city in a different part of the country and I don’t know how he will react to allergens or environmental pollutants in that city. And I am not taking any chances.
According to studies, asthma strikes 1 out 10 school aged children in the US and it is the cause for more hospitalizations for children than any other illness!! It accounts for countless missed work and school days, trips to the clinic and trips to the doctor.
Unfortunately, my son is part of this statistic. I know first hand about the terror of seeing my child gasping for air because he is unable to breath. It’s a scenario that all too many parents in the US are all too familiar with.
Although the tendency to develop asthma may be inherited (i.e. some families are more likely to have it than others) the onset of asthma may be brought on by environmental pollutants. And this certainly is something that we can change…it’s not out of our control.
So when the Moms Clean Air Force approached Lamar and me about joining their cause, we were 100% all in!!
“Politicians in Congress, encouraged by irresponsible corporations and lobbyists, are trying to gut the Clean Air Act and dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency.
When you get right down to it, they’re fighting for the right to pollute our air.
Lined up against them to strengthen clean air regulations are some of the most respected medical organizations in the world: the American Lung Association; the American Medical Association; the American Heart Association; the American Academy of Pediatricians; the American Nurses Association.
One group is missing on this front: Mothers.
We want to change that. Moms have passion and power — an unbeatable combination — as we’ve seen in all the mom blogs. Now we have to harness that strength to fight back against polluters.
So we’ve launched a website and a movement: Moms Clean Air Force.
We’re asking Moms (and Dads) to join together, to come out in strength for our kids’ right to clean air — just as our parents fought for us, forty years ago, when the Clean Air Act was first passed.”
Wow -that’s a cause that we can really get behind. But I am not going to mislead you; I was kind of intimidated by this charge. I mean….we are sort of environmentally conscious. We have been aggressively recycling for a year now at our home (Yes. I know; what took us so long?) We own a hybrid. We don’t litter. We ask the kids to conserve energy around the house, by turning off lights and running water. And Lamar and I both work from home now…that’s big because it reduces the amount of emissions that we were producing. I think we are on the right path. But we have more work to do towards reducing our impact on the environment and reducing our carbon footprint.
So BMWK family, we are hoping that you will join us on this journey to educate and inspire others (moms, dads, folks with no kids, kids…) to actively engage in activities to protect clean air and the EPA. This can be done by joining our cause and by sharing our posts.
You can start now by checking out and liking/following the Moms Clean Air Force website, facebook page and twitter.
BMWK Family – I would like to understand what everyone is doing to protect the environment. Please share what you are doing today to protect the environment and clean air.
Sources – Asthma In Children