My name is David Kush. I am a stay at home parent of two wonderful children, ages 7 and 4, and a husband of a loving wife. I am also a type-1 diabetic. Clean air is very important to me for a number of different reasons.
As a parent, the health of my children is very important to me. I try to keep them as active as I can, which usually means going outside to play. They play soccer and T-ball, we go fishing, we take hikes in the numerous city and state parks around us. Georgia can be an outdoor wonderland! But on hot summer days we sometimes get air quality alerts due to elevated levels of ozone in the air. It becomes dangerous for children to go outside, and even more so to be very active outside. There is nothing worse than spending a beautiful summer day inside because of poor air quality, when we would rather be doing all of our outdoor activities. How can we keep our children active and healthy when they can’t go outside to play?
Since I am a diabetic, I am also in a high-risk category for all sorts of things. This includes air pollution and ozone levels. I can’t go outside and be active when the ozone levels are high, which is really sad, since I love walking, jogging, and hiking. I have run the Peachtree Road Race almost every year that I’ve lived here, and it is very important for me to keep my activity level high to keep my blood sugar levels at the proper place. High ozone levels make it very difficult to do this, as well as training for the road race. I can go to the gym, but it just isn’t as enjoyable, and not everyone can afford to buy a gym membership or get a treadmill for themselves. We won’t be able to afford any of our future healthcare bills if as a country we can’t go outside to exercise.
When I was a child, I was diagnosed with asthma. Anyone who has had severe asthma knows how horrible it is to struggle just to get your next breath. Anyone who doesn’t have asthma should count their blessings that they don’t know what it’s like. While I was able to grow out of my asthma (with a lot of medication and some hard work) not everyone does. As a matter of fact, asthma is becoming more and more common. In 1980 only about 3% of the population was diagnosed with asthma. By 2012 the numbers were at almost 9%. As the air quality of our country gets worse, the asthma rates are going through the roof. The only way that we can stop it is to aggressively reduce the amount of ozone and other pollutants going into the air. The current ozone regulations of 75 parts per billion are nowhere close to being restrictive enough, as the skyrocketing levels of asthma indicate. If we don’t do something now, soon it will be too late.
Written by David Kush
