Washington, D.C. — Today the Sierra Club released a Spanish-language television ad rejecting President Obama’s decision to delay long overdue, life-saving protections from smog, an acidic air pollutant that contributes to bad air quality days, asthma attacks and severe respiratory illnesses.
The Spanish-language ad will be broadcast with high saturation in the Reno, Nevada market by Univision and Telemundo stations over the next four weeks to remind the Latino community of how the smog protection delay will threaten their health and their families. The ad will also run in limited rotation in Las Vegas.
“Almost half of Latinos – more than any other constituency in America – live in the areas of the country where the very act of breathing can be dangerous to your health,” said Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. “Asthma is already considered an epidemic among kids of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, and exposure to smog, a known trigger of asthma attacks, affects these children with particular intensity.”
“With this ad, we are speaking to some of the families most affected by pollution – Latinos and other communities of color, women and mothers – the folks who need our President to speak up and stand up for them,” said Brune.
The updated Environmental Protection Agency smog protection that President Obama decided to delay would have prevented as many as 12,000 premature deaths and 58,000 asthma attacks each year. The measure would have saved the country $100 billion in health costs annually.
National polls conducted in recent years have confirmed that Latinos are deeply concerned about environmental and energy issues. The Sierra Club’s first-ever National Survey of Hispanics and the Environment in 2008 found that 83 percent of Latinos believe the environment has an effect on the quality of life of their families.
When asked what environmental issue concerned them the most, more than half answered air and water pollution.
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The full text of the ad:
The cruel grip of asthma attacks tens of thousands of Hispanic children, putting their American Dream at risk.
President Obama had the opportunity to clean the air but he decided that clean air and our children can wait.
Polluters won, our kids lost.
President Obama, keep your word and protect our kids from contamination.
SierraClub.org/accion. Paid for by the Sierra Club.
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