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Save money...forget about and damn good health!

It is hard to believe that this has happened in 2011 - in the one of the richest countries in the world.

Environment News Service reports in "U.S. House Slashes Funding for Public Health, Clean Air, Clean Water":

"Early this morning, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a funding bill that environmentalists say amounts to the biggest attack on clean air and clean water in recent history.

H.R. 1, the continuing resolution offered by House Republicans to keep the government funded for the rest of the fiscal year, passed by a vote of 235-189. Only three Republicans joined all the Democrats in voting no.

American Lung Association President and CEO Charles Connor called the bill "a severe assault on the health of all Americans."

"The U.S. House of Representatives failed to protect the public health of all Americans by passing H.R. 1," said Connor. "This bill ignores public health and will have dire consequences for all Americans, especially people with lung diseases, including lung cancer, asthma and emphysema."


Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant on the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania emits greenhouse gases and other pollutants. (Photo by Kiyo Komoda)

"The American Lung Association calls on the Senate to recognize that, as passed by the House, H.R. 1 is toxic to public health," said Connor. "The Senate must start from scratch and recognize that tough fiscal choices can be made without jeopardizing public health."

H.R. 1 slashes the budget of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by one-third and prevents the agency from acting to reduce carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants from coal-fired power plants and oil refineries, a regulatory program that began January 2.

The bill also blocks EPA from restoring Clean Water Act protections for many of the nation's most vulnerable waterways, including those that feed into drinking water supplies for more than 117 million Americans."

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