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Harder Pushes New Federal Health & Climate Office to Focus on Air Quality in the Central Valley

September 1, 2021

Harder asks Biden administration’s new Office of Climate Change and Health Equity to take action on asthma exacerbated by increasingly severe wildfire smoke

WASHINGTON — Today, Representative Josh Harder (CA-10) welcomed the Biden Administration's establishment of the new Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, the first government office that will focus specifically on the public health dangers of climate change. As the office begins its critical work, Rep. Harder is pushing its leadership to prioritize the impact of wildfire smoke on asthma rates in the Central Valley and throughout the West. Earlier this year, Rep. Harder pushed expert witnesses on exactly this topic as increasingly severe wildfires are creating worsening air quality in the Valley.

"When Friday night football games across our community can't happen because these massive wildfires have made the air unsafe for our kids to breathe, it's clear we have a serious problem on our hands," said Rep. Harder. "One in six of our kids has asthma and the air is just getting worse. I'm encouraged to see the administration taking the link between climate change and health in communities like ours seriously and I'm looking forward to working alongside anybody who wants to fix this. Our kids deserve better."

Presently, many cities in the Central Valley are classified as some of the most polluted in the country, one out of every six children have asthma in the Valley, and wildfires are known to be directly tied to decreasing air quality across the region. Rep. Harder himself suffered from childhood asthma growing up in Turlock.

Issues:Health Care