DEAR EDITOR: Clean air is critical to the health and well-being of our children. I have lived through the terrifying experience of rushing my son to the hospital for respiratory issues, twice.
For him and for all children in Colorado it is an issue we must deal with. Air pollution damages their health in several ways including developmental, cardiovascular and respiratory problems. The Denver/Aurora metro area is 14th worst out of 227 metro areas across the country according to the American Lung Association. We must clean up our air.
One step we can take is to reduce our carbon pollution. Since ozone pollution forms in the presence of heat, we certainly don’t want to increase the number of hot days we have but that’s exactly what we’ll see if we have continuing climate change.
Our state legislature is currently considering a bill that would address this problem — HB1261 — by reducing carbon pollution in Colorado. I hope it passes quickly so we can begin to address this problem that has been allowed to linger for too long.
— Stacy Jayawardene, Aurora, via letters@SentinelColorado.com