Ramp’s “Push for Significant Reductions in Freight Pollution”

Just received – an emailed newsletter from the Regional Asthma Management and Prevention collaborative, with information on their “Push for Significant Reductions in Freight Pollution.”

Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (RAMP) is a collaborative that promotes strategies for reducing asthma through a broad and comprehensive approach, which includes clinical management and environmental protection. RAMP brings together diverse partners such as public health and community-based organizations, schools, medical providers, and environmental health and justice groups to join forces in reducing the burden of asthma with a focus on communities inequitably affected by the disease.
INTERESTED IN PUBLIC POLICY? CLICK HERE TO LEARN ABOUT POLICIES RAMP IS ACTIVELY SUPPORTING

December 4, 2014

Dear RAMP Digest subscribers:

Let’s face it: addressing asthma can be complicated. There isn’t one “silver bullet” that will magically manage or prevent the disease. That’s why we have to take a comprehensive approach that addresses high quality clinical management as well as environmental protection.

Two advocacy opportunities this month really capture that dynamic, too. Please show your support for healthy air and access to better asthma care!

Push for Significant Reductions in Freight Pollution
Have you noticed all those semi-trucks on our highways, container ships in our ports, and rail cars on our train tracks? These vehicles are transporting everything from food and electronics to clothing and building materials across California. But, because they rely on diesel fuel, they are also producing a lot of pollution, which causes thousands of people to get sick every year—with asthma or bronchitis, for example—leading many to miss work or school, or even die prematurely.

RAMP is advocating for the modernization of California’s freight system with advanced technologies and better use of existing technologies and fuels. Working with a coalition of community-based, environmental, and public health organizations, we are asking asthma advocates to sign a petition urging Governor Jerry Brown to take bold steps to clean up California’s freight transportation system.

The air across California is cleaner than it once was, but there are still too many communities where it is unhealthy. Meanwhile, global warming emissions from freight vehicles are expected to grow in the coming decades without stronger action. Fortunately, technologies that dramatically reduce pollution and improve efficiency present an opportunity to transform today’s conventional freight vehicles into a low-carbon transportation system that cleans our air and reduces greenhouse gases. Please add your name to this petition by December 16th to show your support for healthy air.

Remove Barriers to Asthma Care in California
The American Lung Association (ALA) in California is reaching out to health organizations across California to sign on to a letter to the California Department of Health Care Services to urge them to remove barriers to asthma care for Medi-Cal patients and make sure all asthma patients in California have full access to the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) Guideline’s recommended tests, treatments and devices needed to effectively treat and manage their asthma.

The letter requests that current restrictions and barriers that limit guidelines-based care be lifted for all short- and long-term acting medications, in-vitro and skin testing to determine indoor allergen sensitivities, and devices such as nebulizers, peak-flow meters and spacers.

For background on the NAEPP guidelines, click here. For a draft of the letter, click here. If you would like to sign on please email the ALA’s Jenny Bard by end of day Tuesday, December 9th. Please include the name and title of the signer, along with the organization logo. Thank you in advance for your support!

Last but not least, below are a few other timely updates and opportunities we hope you’ll find useful.

Warm regards,
RAMP Staff