Breathing is our Birthright

In high school when I complained that I couldn't breathe, I was told by the family doctor to take Valium, that I was anxious, and it was all in my mind. Instead, I ran away from home. I feel things deeply before they are severe. I run towards health.

Autumn is an intense asthma season. There is nothing more frightening to me than the suffocation I feel from not being able to breathe deeply. It is like having quicksand filling up in my lungs, threatening to drown me. I carry my emergency inhaler in my bra. When I first open it I write the date on it with a Sharpie permanent marker. I try not to be shy about using it, and to remind myself that doing so is not a sign of weakness.

Breathing is our birthright! I swim, dance, walk, play horn, to keep my lungs strong. I open the window and turn on the fan when doing the wash or the dishes to vent the detergent fumes.

From the American Lung Association:

Walk, bike or carpool. Combine trips. Use buses, subways, light rail systems, commuter trains or other alternatives to driving your car.

Fill up your gas tank after dark. Gasoline emissions evaporate as you fill up your gas tank. These emissions contribute to the formation of ozone, a component of smog.

Fill up after dark to keep the sun from turning those gases into air pollution.

Don't burn wood or trash. Burning firewood and trash are among the major sources of particle pollution (soot) in many parts of the country.

If you must use a fireplace or stove for heat, convert wood-stoves to natural gas, which produces far fewer emissions.

Use hand-powered or electric lawn care equipment rather than gasoline-powered.

Two-stroke engines like lawnmowers and leaf or snow blowers often have no pollution control devices. They can pollute the air even more than cars.