Trucks Travel

Trucks make their way on eastbound I-580 in California, where emission standards on diesel exhaust are more strict than in Oregon.

(Ben Margot/AP Photo)

Erika Moseson

As a doctor who treats lung disease, I see the ugly truth about what it means to struggle to breathe. These illnesses are expensive, debilitating and can make going for a simple walk down the street impossible.

If you're one of my patients on a bad air day with toxic diesel exhaust, you're frequently a prisoner in your own home. When you can't breathe, you can't do a whole lot else.

On April 17, Oregon state senators in the Committee on Natural Resources and Environment, gutted Senate Bill 1008, the Clean Engines Clean Air Act, which would have set a deadline for cleaning up dirty diesel exhaust in our air. It would have protected Oregon from being the dumping ground for old trucks and engines from neighboring states who have raised standards. But thanks to pressure from industry lobbyists, what they passed on to the Senate Rules Committee was a shell that stripped away the health benefits.

Every day I go to work, I face the reality of bad air and what it does to our communities.

We need to pass legislation that curbs toxic diesel exhaust and enforces idling laws near places like schools and playgrounds, where our youngest and most vulnerable breath. This affects children across the state, not just in urban areas.

Lawmakers know this. Health experts testified before them just a few weeks ago, sharing scientific facts on how diesel exhaust is toxic. It is small and travels through the lungs straight to the bloodstream. Diesel exhaust causes more fatalities than traffic crashes. It puts Oregonians at risk for cancer.

Furthermore, it affects the very people who industry lobbyists pretend to protect -- our truckers. Many of my patients have worked as diesel truckers, sitting above a dirty engine, breathing in fumes from the vehicles ahead of them in traffic that caused or worsened their COPD. Thanks to toxic air, Oregon families across the state struggle to pay for inhalers, and breadwinners try to work through lung diseases. Employers see their premiums rise, their workers need more sick days, and parents watch their children suffer from worsened asthma.

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As a doctor, mother of a young child, and a native Oregonian, I urge lawmakers to set a deadline to clean up dirty diesel. Let's not wait another session, another season, another bad air day to do it. The current budget shortfall will be nothing compared to future budget gaps if we have to keep paying for healthcare costs from dirty diesel. Let's be smart with our health and tax dollars.

I urge all Oregonians to call your state senator and let them know that our health should not be ignored. We can't let industry reject responsibility for practical solutions that clean up our air and save lives and future healthcare expenditures. It's not enough to rely on voluntary solutions and weak standards. We must stand strong for all who breathe.

Erika Moseson is a pulmonologist and president-elect of the Oregon Thoracic Society.