Dear Editor:I thought I had heard most everything until I read "Protecting Our Air and Public Health" by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (The Downey Patriot, 4/14/11). How does she know how many days are missed from school and work because of bad air days? Does the government check why people are absent? If the EPA has reduced lead levels by 92% in 40 years we should all be breathing well by now, and what source does she quote as preventing hundreds of thousands of premature deaths? Does the government look into who died prematurely and how? Could they just name a few hundred people who have died prematurely and state how much longer they would have lived? If our air is now 92% pure, I'm sure in a few days the EPA could surely do away with the 8% left. I was totally unaware that Latinos do not breathe the same air we do. Also, the congresswoman stated that "30% of us don't have health care" - someone needs to tell her that she has the best healthcare in the world. The EPA is updating standards of mercury, yet our government is forcing us to use light globes that have mercury and we've been warned of the danger of breaking them, but it does benefit China which makes them. I have called Washington, D.C. hundreds of times, including Roybal-Allard's office, but I'm still waiting for the promised returned calls. I'm still in the dark as to why Latino air is more heavily impacted than ours is. I must look for the place where they breathe different air! One final thought: Roybal-Allard is so concerned with children's health yet she firmly supports Planned Parenthood. If she hasn't noticed, more than 50 million babies (documented) have been aborted; these would have been children had they not been murdered. I have challenged her office to show me one family that has "planned" a family there. These babies never had a chance to breathe the 92% clean air, or any other air. -- Elsa Van Leuven, Downey

********** Published: April 28, 2011 - Volume 10 - Issue 2