The EPA Cuts Are Going to Hurt Arizona

There are some things in life that are so common-place that people don’t think about them. For most people, breathing is one of those things. It’s such a routine and natural action that it completely slips their minds. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for me.

I don’t think I can remember a time when I didn’t have allergies or asthma. I was born in Bakersfield, CA, which, according to the American Lung Association, is the United State’s most ozone-polluted city in 2017. By the time I was 12, I had to use a daily inhaler. I moved to Arizona in middle school, and my asthma symptoms seemed to improve a bit at first. Sadly, that didn’t last long. With the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale metro area being the fifth-most polluted area in the U.S., my family and I didn’t make much of an upgrade.

Because of my pre-existing asthma and my allergy to the flu vaccine, I tend to get severe respiratory illnesses at least a few times a year. What would be a normal cold or flu for most people can often turn into severe respiratory issues for me — and the more I get them, the more damage I do to my lungs. I once spent 4 days in a hospital in California because of an “unknown severe respiratory infection.” People actually had to wear those odd yellow moonsuits to come visit me.

After my most recent urgent care visit in February, I’ve had to return to using a rescue inhaler as well as a pill that’s supposed to help regulate my daily asthma symptoms. I don’t know if you’ve ever been stuck on a daily medication regimen, but it’s burdensome, to say the least. You always have to remember to carry your medication, especially if you have to take it at specific times.

You get really familiar with TSA regulations about carrying certain medications on planes. If you’re like me, you’re used to getting all the way to your car, but having to turn around and go back to your apartment for your inhaler because you’re probably not going to be okay forgetting it “just this once.” To make my life easier, I’ve paid for multiple inhalers at once, just so I don’t have to worry about forgetting one if it doesn’t make it back into my bag after using it in the middle of the night.

My experience, especially here in Arizona, isn’t all that unusual. According to the State of Risk: Arizona report published by the Environmental Defense Fund, 486,357 adults and 175,556 children have been diagnosed with asthma in our state. In 2008, pediatric asthma attacks caused 15,910 emergency room visits and over $1.3 billion in medical costs in Arizona alone. Studies have shown that there’s a direct correlation between densely polluted areas and asthma-related emergency room visits.

As part of the federal budget for fiscal year 2018, the Trump administration and Congress are proposing damaging cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency. This would be a devastating blow to our health and safety here in AZ, and would likely result in many more people in our state having to face the same difficulties I have had to endure.

Almost 30 percent of funding for Arizona programs focused on monitoring our air come from grants from the EPA. If proposed cuts to the EPA are enacted, almost a third of those grants could disappear. In addition to clean air grants, EPA protections also help to reduce the number of “Code Red” days — days where the pollution is so high, children and seniors are often advised not to go outside and people are encouraged to carpool to reduce the number of contaminants being released into the air.

Defend Our Future, the nonpartisan, student-led organization that I work for, has been working to raise awareness about the myriad environmental issues we could face in Arizona if EPA budget cuts are implemented and is encouraging people to contact their representatives. Please do your part as a citizen and let them know you won’t stand for a defunding plan that will all but ensure many more Arizonans develop asthma and, like me, will have no choice but to worry each and every day about the quality of the air they breathe.

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