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), pul-
monary 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 in-
direct 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 infec-
tious 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 expo-
sure to tobacco smoke; 
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•HRES 1122 IH 
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 af-
fected by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) 
each year, a critical illness that results in sudden res-
piratory 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 trig-
gered by infection, drowning, traumatic accident, burn in-
juries, blood transfusions, and inhalation of toxic sub-
stances, 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 un-
known; 
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 dis-
ease 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 surfac-
tant protein deficiency, chronic bronchiolitis, and connec-
tive tissue lung disease, and is thus difficult to diagnose 
and treat; 
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention esti-
mates that 50,000,000 to 70,000,000 adults in the 
United States suffer from disorders of sleep and wakeful-
ness; 
Whereas insufficient sleep is associated with a number of 
chronic diseases and conditions, including diabetes, car-
diovascular 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 hos-
pitalization, emergency room visits, and physician visits, 
by half; 
Whereas the flu vaccine can prevent 60 percent of hos-
pitalizations and 80 percent of deaths from flu-related 
complications among the elderly; 
Whereas advances in medical research have significantly im-
proved the capacity to fight lung disease by providing 
greater knowledge about its causes, innovative diagnostic 
tools to detect the disease, and new and improved treat-
ments that help people survive and recover from this dis-
ease; 
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 en-
gaged 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 valu-
able prevention and surveillance programs on diseases of 
the lung; 
Whereas an international collaboration of medical profes-
sional and scientific societies is working to enhance the 
general public’s understanding of respiratory diseases, 
their causes, prevention, treatment, and impact res-
piratory 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 re-
sources to combat lung disease including resources for re-
search and research training programs worldwide: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports 
the goals and ideals of the Year of the Lung. 
Æ 
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