Or maybe I should say, “this in from Captain Obvious”

NPR published an article (surprisingly because that’s their job), When LA’s Air Got Better, Kids’ Asthma Cases Dropped

Children who live in areas with bad air pollution are more likely to develop asthma, which is the most common chronic illness among young people. But when you clean up the air does that actually protect the health of kids?

Is that where the 12 year old me says, well duh?  Oh yeah, its true it does, read on:

The research focused on Southern California, long notorious for its smog. Over the past two decades, air quality has been markedly getting better, as stricter rules limit pollution from vehicles.

The change led Erika Garcia, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southern California, to ask a simple question. “We know there have been reductions in air pollution,” she says. “Let’s see if concurrently there are improvements in health outcomes during that same time period.

Bottom line:

“This corresponded with about a 20 percent decline in the rate of new asthma cases in children,” Garcia says. “It’s fairly substantial.”

Ok 20% is huge that is very statistically significant. The study when on to mention that pregnant women had also reduced smoking and less children were exposed to second hand smoke.

Better air is better for everyone.  You should try living in the toxic soup of Salt Lake City’s air during the winter. Our lovely mountains to the east cause a lovely inversion layer that traps smog. We see so many cases of shortness of breath (which if you see your chart and you see a diagnosis of SOB well…check your behavior…no I am kidding, maybe). Air quality is huge to overall health.

Although here we are more concerned with porn than air quality.  The Governor of Utah Gary Herbert (a republican and good church member) says that Porn is the number one public health problem in Utah. I guess we need to stop breathing in all that porn?

Back in reality, we of course are treating all the SOB’s, dealing with asthma in children and trying to mitigate the effects. The inconvenience that the Clean Air Act (recommended and signed by Richard Nixon…bet you didn’t know that without google) causes is the requirement for more responsible emissions (which cost more money).  Now before I get accused of being a flaming liberal (I’m flaming alright), maybe you should think about how much you enjoy breathing.

The Los Angeles of today is nothing like the Los Angeles of the 70’s, ok well air quality wise.