(Ottawa) - On behalf of all Canadian kids, more than a dozen preschool children today presented Prime Minister Jean Chrt0069en with a Kyoto Thank You Card and a bag full of asthma puffers.
The presentation to the Prime Minister was the culmination of a national Kids for Kyoto campaign led by child care workers and advocates including the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada and the YWCA of Canada.
The kids we care for are bearing the brunt of poor air quality. Smog and air pollution are health hazards for everyone but they can be deadly for children and their developing lungs. Kids need clean air, says Shellie Bird from CUPE 2204. The Kyoto Protocol was designed with children in mind. We want to thank the Prime Minister for ratifying Kyoto.
Bird accompanied Calista McPhail, Romeo Rose, and Christopher Nsungani as well as several other preschool children (18 months to 4 years) as they presented an oversized thank you card to the Prime Minister.
According to medical authorities, asthma is a growing public health epidemic. Poor air quality is a trigger of this chronic disease characterized by inflammation of the airways and lungs. In Canada, up to 20 per cent of children are reported to have asthma. Childhood asthma cases and deaths of children due to asthma have been increasing steadily over the past 20 years.
I worked in a daycare for infants where four out of six children 6 to 18 months old were on puffers. We have to turn this around. Our kids need clean air not puffers to grow up healthy. We owe it to them to ratify and implement Kyoto, concludes Bird.
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For more information:
Peter Bleyer (613) 722-4824 or cell (613) 292-6929
The presentation to the Prime Minister was the culmination of a national Kids for Kyoto campaign led by child care workers and advocates including the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada and the YWCA of Canada.
The kids we care for are bearing the brunt of poor air quality. Smog and air pollution are health hazards for everyone but they can be deadly for children and their developing lungs. Kids need clean air, says Shellie Bird from CUPE 2204. The Kyoto Protocol was designed with children in mind. We want to thank the Prime Minister for ratifying Kyoto.
Bird accompanied Calista McPhail, Romeo Rose, and Christopher Nsungani as well as several other preschool children (18 months to 4 years) as they presented an oversized thank you card to the Prime Minister.
According to medical authorities, asthma is a growing public health epidemic. Poor air quality is a trigger of this chronic disease characterized by inflammation of the airways and lungs. In Canada, up to 20 per cent of children are reported to have asthma. Childhood asthma cases and deaths of children due to asthma have been increasing steadily over the past 20 years.
I worked in a daycare for infants where four out of six children 6 to 18 months old were on puffers. We have to turn this around. Our kids need clean air not puffers to grow up healthy. We owe it to them to ratify and implement Kyoto, concludes Bird.
-30-
For more information:
Peter Bleyer (613) 722-4824 or cell (613) 292-6929