Washington, DC –– During an official joint hearing of two subcommittees of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, James Ginda, a registered respiratory therapist at Kent Hospital in Warwick, testified last week about the effects air pollution has on children’s health. U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the EPW Children’s Health Subcommittee, invited Ginda to testify.
“Our Rhode Island Department of Health reports that 11% of children in Rhode Island have asthma. In some communities in our state, those numbers climb even further, but just as they are that translates into 25,000 children in a state of 1 million,” said Whitehouse.
“Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood and is responsible for a large amount of health care expenditures and lost school days,” said Ginda. “The burden extends to families who lose work days caring for sick children, and to the health care system with increased acute care visits, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations.”
Whitehouse has encouraged Rhode Islanders to share their stories with him about asthma, kids, and clean air to keep encouraging the EPA to update air quality standards. Stories can be shared on Whitehouse’s website.
Ginda has over 33 years of experience in health care and is a respiratory supervisor at Kent Hospital and a clinical instructor for the Community College of RI (CCRI). He is also a recipient of the Hospital Association of RI Award for Excellence in Hospital Care, and the RI Society for Respiratory Care’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
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