JenniferSpartzAnnotation3LastResorts

Annotation 3 Mitman Chapter 3- The Last Resorts The book, //Breathing Space//, was written by Gregg Mitman. As an asthmatic, he understands the seriousness of the disease and the need for it to be continuously studied in a variety of ways as there is more than one cause of the illness. This specific chapter is about how asthmatics felt it was their right to have a healthy environment and it discusses the distances people would travel to try to avoid their asthma symptoms when it seemed as there was no other cure. At the end of the chapter it is also discussed that an overall environmental change can help with the controlling of asthma. People would travel to Denver and Tucson to find an environment in which they could breathe and function well. He also discusses the lengths at which these towns, and towns like it, would go to get asthmatics to come and stay with them. Many authors who were or became popular at this time were often used as celebrities to bring in more “customers” to the area and it often worked. It helped that the change of scenery in general had a positive effect on asthma. As the U.S. became more industrial, the number of “natural” living spaces started to dwindle. Two of the last places that asthmatics could visit and find the healthy environment they were looking for were Denver and Tucson. Over time, however, these places also succumbed to the debates of development and commercialism versus public health. These areas originally tried to become wealthy, while remaining healthy, but in the end, when attempting to bring more people into the area, the area gradually became more developed and therefore less healthy. The only people who ended up with a decent treatment were those who arrived before most of the commercialization started, who were essentially the rich people. At this point it was still believed “Nature alone cures, and where there is no nature there is no hope” (109) and it eventually reached “’Progress’ has taken away from me both my invigorating air and my brilliant stars” (126). This means that nature originally was the only chance at a decent life anyone who had asthma could achieve, but it was learned that as the U.S is developing, it became harder to achieve. The implication of this finding is that if we were to find an untouched area of land, asthmatics would all of a sudden feel better. However, as the population grows and is expanding, the amount of untouched land is steadily decreasing and if one were to offer the land as “curing” then it would industrialize that much quicker. The amount of money put towards studies of kids and asthma in the 50’s is amazing. It could be questioned, however, that many of the contributors are only looking for political status. Within these asthma communities, governments had been set up and if someone was making large donations toward the studies in the area, there is a pretty good chance they had a large amount of influence on the decisions made. The author clearly knows how desperate someone can be when searching for a cure to a problem and how willing they will be to accept help from just about anywhere. This article helps us further understand how the importance of asthma was brought into public eye in the 20th century. With various towns and hospitals built solely to work to eradicate or at least lessen the effects of asthma inducers. It also helps us understand how literature was used to spread the word. The possible places that help asthma were described from the perspective of well respected and popular authors. It was seen in this article that a change in environment was helpful to those with asthma. Whether it was just home environment or air quality in a specific part of the country, asthma was overall helped by moving.