IV 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1122 

Supporting the goals and ideals of the Year of the Lung 2010. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 26, 2010 

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia submitted the following resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

RESOLUTION 

Supporting the goals and ideals of the Year of the Lung 

2010. 

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; 


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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; 


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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 


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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; 

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; 


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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; 


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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 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports 

2 the goals and ideals of the Year of the Lung. 

Æ 


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