Air

Air.....Probably a good place to start. The quality of our air especially in the cities has declined steadily. As an Assistant Principal I have seen a steady increase of asthma in children over the past 15 years or so. I am thankful for the new public smoking laws as this might have been a partial cause to this increase but is it enough?

Everytime I cross over from Staten Island to New Jersey I see huge smoke stacks filling the sky with who knows what. I just somehow feel that this can't be good. You can hardly see through the haze and the smell....well I'm sure you get the picture by now.

They say that inside our homes is not much better and may even be worse. So what are they trying to say? Is it our breath or bodies? I doubt that. We shower, use deoderent, brush and spray more than ever! Could that be it? Well, it was enough for me to buy two Oreck air purifiers. And believe it or not I did notice a difference in the quality of the air. Feels lighter and cleaner. Or is it just in my imagination?

Trust me, I'm not a proponent of getting rid of our cars and present day technology. I just think that maybe we need to put our heads together to find a new technology to cure the present technology and we can worry about that technology latter. Until then we have to forego our outside activity on smog alert days and keep the school nurses office filled with inhalers.

I am a bit perplexed....should I study yoga and other deep breathing techniques? Or am I better off just taking little gasps every now and then? What do you think?
Ed