Don't Breathe the Air

摘要

For most of his childhood, asthma has kept 9-year-old Bobby Duncan inside his family's house near Knoxville, Tenn., in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. When he tried to play outdoors, he would fall behind the other kids, coughing and wheezing, until he rushed inside for medication to open his airways. Mostly he sat on the sidelines dreaming that, like his twin brother, Bo, he might someday be a star Little Leaguer. Last spring, his dream came true. Though their doctor warned that Bobby's asthma could worsen if he played sports outdoors, the Duncans agreed he could try to play ball. But now summer is here, and with it ozone season. "When we have an ozone warning," his mother says, "I can't let him go outside."