[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 173 (Wednesday, December 22, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11057-S11058]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUPPORTING THE GOALS AND IDEALS OF THE YEAR OF THE LUNG 2010
Mr. BAYH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee be discharged from further
consideration of S. Res. 432, and the Senate proceed to its
consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 432) supporting the goals and ideals
of the Year of the Lung 2010.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution.
Mr. BAYH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to
reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or
debate, and that any statements related to the resolution be printed in
the Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The resolution (S. Res. 432) was agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
S. Res. 432
Whereas millions of people around the world struggle each
year for life and breath due to lung diseases, including
tuberculosis, asthma, pneumonia, influenza, lung cancer and
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary
fibrosis, and more than 8,100,000 die each year;
Whereas lung diseases afflict people in every country and
every socioeconomic group, but take the heaviest toll on the
poor, children, the elderly, and the weak;
Whereas lung disease is a serious public health problem in
the United States that affects adults and children of every
age and race;
Whereas lower respiratory diseases are the fourth leading
cause of death in the United States;
Whereas the economic cost of lung diseases is expected to
be $177,000,000,000 in 2009, including $114,000,000,000 in
direct health expenditures and $64,000,000,000 in indirect
morbidity and mortality costs;
Whereas nearly half of the world's population lives in or
near areas with poor air quality, which significantly
increases the incidence of lung diseases such as asthma and
COPD, and more than 2,000,000 people die prematurely due to
indoor and outdoor air pollution;
Whereas tuberculosis, an airborne infection that attacks
the lungs and other major organs, is a leading global
infectious disease;
Whereas no new drugs have been developed for tuberculosis
in more than 5 decades and the only vaccine is nearly a
century old, yet there were 9,400,000 new cases in 2008, and
this curable disease kills 1,800,000 each year;
Whereas an estimated 12,000,000 adults in the United
States, are diagnosed with COPD, and another 12,000,000 have
the disease but don't know it;
Whereas COPD kills an estimated 126,000 people in the
United States each year, is currently the fourth leading
cause of death in the Nation, is the only one of the 4 major
causes that is still increasing in prevalence, and is
expected to rise to become the third leading cause of death
in the United States;
Whereas lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the
United States and the most common cause of cancer deaths;
Whereas the leading cause of lung cancer is long-term
exposure to tobacco smoke;
Whereas about 23,400,000 people in the United States have
asthma, a prevalence which has risen by over 150 percent
since 1980;
Whereas asthma is the most common chronic disorder found in
children, with 7,000,000 affected;
Whereas flu and pneumonia together are the eighth leading
cause of death in the United States;
Whereas about 190,000 people in the United States are
affected by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) each
year, a critical illness that results in sudden respiratory
system failure, which is fatal in up to 30 percent of cases;
Whereas about 75,000 people in the United States die as a
result of acute lung injury, a disease that can be triggered
by infection, drowning, traumatic accident, burn injuries,
blood transfusions, and inhalation of toxic substances, which
kills approximately the same number of people each year as
die from breast cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer
combined;
Whereas of the 10 leading causes of infant mortality in the
United States, 4 are lung diseases or have a lung disease
component;
Whereas pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a relentlessly
progressive, ultimately fatal disease with a median survival
rate of 2.8 years that has no life-saving therapy or cure;
Whereas more than 120,000 people are living with PF in the
United States, 48,000 are diagnosed with it each year, and as
many as 40,000 die annually, the same as die from breast
cancer;
Whereas the cause of sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease
that occurs most often in the lungs and has its highest
incidence among young people aged 20 to 29, is unknown;
Whereas 15 years ago, people with pulmonary hypertension
lived on average less than 3 years after diagnosis;
Whereas new treatments have improved survival rates and
quality of life for those living with this condition, but it
remains a severe and often fatal illness;
Whereas Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a rare lung disease
that affects women exclusively and is also associated with
tuberous sclerosis, has no treatment protocol or cure and is
often misdiagnosed as asthma or emphysema;
Whereas Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome, a genetic metabolic
disorder which causes albinism, visual impairment, and
serious bleeding due to platelet dysfunction, has no cure and
no standard of treatment;
Whereas children's interstitial lung disease, a group of
rare lung diseases, has many different forms, including
surfactant protein deficiency, chronic bronchiolitis, and
connective tissue lung disease, and is thus difficult to
diagnose and treat;
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
estimates that 50,000,000 to 70,000,000 adults in the United
States suffer from disorders of sleep and wakefulness;
[[Page S11058]]
Whereas insufficient sleep is associated with a number of
chronic diseases and conditions, including diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression;
Whereas the average cost of treating severe COPD is 5 times
higher than treating mild COPD;
Whereas the appropriate medication and disease management
of asthma can reduce health care costs, including
hospitalization, emergency room visits, and physician visits,
by half;
Whereas the flu vaccine can prevent 60 percent of
hospitalizations and 80 percent of deaths from flu-related
complications among the elderly;
Whereas advances in medical research have significantly
improved the capacity to fight lung disease by providing
greater knowledge about its causes, innovative diagnostic
tools to detect the disease, and new and improved treatments
that help people survive and recover from this disease;
Whereas there is no cure for major lung diseases including
asthma, COPD, and lung cancer;
Whereas chronic lung diseases are a leading cause of death
and yet the quality of palliative and end-of-life care for
patients with chronic lung disease is significantly worse
than patients with other terminal illnesses;
Whereas the National Institutes of Health, through its many
institutes and centers, through basic, clinical, and
translational research, plays a pivotal role in advancing the
prevention, detection, treatment, and cure of lung disease;
Whereas the Department of Veterans Affairs is actively
engaged in research in respiratory diseases that impact the
Nation's veterans;
Whereas the Environmental Protection Agency establishes air
quality standard and enforcement programs to ensure the
quality of the air we breathe;
Whereas the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
provides essential health insurance benefits for millions of
patients with respiratory disorders;
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
through its many centers and programs, provides valuable
prevention and surveillance programs on diseases of the lung;
Whereas an international collaboration of medical
professional and scientific societies is working to enhance
the general public's understanding of respiratory diseases,
their causes, prevention, treatment, and impact respiratory
disease play in human health; and
Whereas the initiative, The Year of the Lung, seeks to
raise awareness about lung health among the public, initiate
action in communities worldwide, and advocate for resources
to combat lung disease including resources for research and
research training programs worldwide: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate supports the goals and ideals of
the Year of the Lung.
____________________