Obamateurism of the Day

Once again, Barack Obama attempted to regale an audience with his depth of medical knowledge — and once again, we have another Obamateurism. Attempting to defend his regulatory adventurism at the EPA, Obama told an Annandale audience on Tuesday that the reason he’s so tough on coal is that it causes asthma in children:

“The challenge with coal is that although it’s very cheap, it’s also dirty. And it can create the kinds of air pollution that not only is contributing to climate change but is also creating asthma for kids nearby,” Obama said in answer to a question about balancing deficit reduction with government spending on clean energy.

That would be news to the NIH, as CNS News notes, which says that there is no known single cause for asthma in children, and suggests a number of other possibilities:

Asthma, however, is not caused by coal, or the emissions from coal-fired power plants, as the president suggested. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) the true cause of asthma is unknown, although scientists believe it is caused by a confluence of genetic and environmental factors or early viral infections.

“The exact cause of asthma isn’t known. Researchers think some genetic and environmental factors interact to cause asthma, most often early in life,” the NIH states on its Web site.

“These factors include: An inherited tendency to develop allergies, called atopy (AT-o-pe); parents who have asthma; certain respiratory infections during childhood; contact with some airborne allergens or exposure to some viral infections in infancy or in early childhood when the immune system is developing,” states the NIH.

Exposure to particulate emissions can trigger an asthmatic attack, but it doesn’t create asthmatics, and it’s only one of several triggers, which include (among others) dust, cleaning chemicals, and hair spray.  Maybe the Obama administration should ban Alberto VO5.  Or maybe, just maybe, Obama should learn about a topic before delivering his opinion on it, a lesson he should have learned from his Tonsil Vultures and Foot Fiends arguments on ObamaCare.

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!