City Commission Meeting Statement 4/4/11

Connie Simpson, RN, at the City of Shelton Commission Meeting

PLEASE THINK LONG AND HARD

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Connie Simpson Mason County Progressive

I have been a registered nurse for more than 30 years, with much of that time spent as an operating room nurse. At one time, specifically in a cardiovascular-thoracic specialty surgery in Los Angeles, I saw the ravages of the effects of inhaled airborne pollutants on the body first hand.

There are few deaths as heart wrenching as those of a patient dying of lung disease, and struggling to take in a breath. Often in my job as a hospice nurse, only massive amounts of opiates calm the struggle. Unfortunately, those same massive doses of morphine or dilaudid may shorten, or even end the patient's life.

Children with asthma have been known to have life-threatening attacks from just one incident of sitting in traffic behind a diesel truck. Adults must stop their plans for the day and rush a child, struggling to breathe, to the emergency room. Every year, too many children in our state die from asthma attacks.

These oft repeated dramas take place here in our own community. The toll on patients and on loved ones is immense. The health care costs, sometimes borne by the taxpayers, are immense. The physicians in our state, the physicians in our county, the American Lung Association, and the American Heart Association are all concerned about any increase in air pollution and it's toll on human health.

We don't want another source of air pollution in our town. We want the existing sources of air pollution to be monitored and emission standards (such as they are) upheld. And, if we must have a polluter in our midst. we want the best possible filtering methods implemented.

I have asthma, as do two of my three grandchildren who were born and are growing up here in Shelton. The third has allergies which may be precursors to asthma. I can personally tell when emissions are trapped in the bowl of Shelton proper by my own breathing difficulties, after which I must resort to an inhaler.

Please think long and hard about your role in permitting another source of pollution for Shelton which will affect your health and mine.

Connie Simpson, RN
Shelton, WA

Photo by Christine

SHELTON BLOG NOTE:

LINK TO LATEST MASON COUNTY HEALTH RANKINGS:
http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/washington/mason

Link to County Health Rankings also available in blog Reference Documents