Tacoma needs clean air for its children
Op Ed in Tacoma News Tribune by pediatric nurse Nicole Makula.
"I am a pediatric nurse, and along with almost 200,000 other Northwesterners, I live and work in one of the 31 most polluted places in the country: Tacoma.
The difference between me and my neighbors is that I see the effects of this pollution nearly every day – children and adults struggling with asthma, lung and heart disease, and even cancer.
It’s hard to see a child struggling for each breath when he should be running and playing with his friends. It’s even harder to know we could be doing more to prevent this problem, which affects tens of thousands of kids and adults in Pierce County. We received a wake-up call in October, when the Tacoma area officially received a dirty air designation from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. We have a serious problem on our hands and it’s threatening to get worse..."
