President Obama Blames Climate Change for Daughter’s Asthma

President Obama blames climate change for his daughter’s asthma attack when she was a toddler, an incident that caused the family to rush to the emergency room.

“Well, you know Malia had asthma when she was four and, because we had good health insurance, we were able to knock it out early,” Obama tells ABC News. “And if we can make sure that our responses to the environment are reducing those incidents, that’s something that I think every parent would wish for.”

In the interview, Dr. Richard Besser asked Obama why Americans should care about climate change and its impact on public health when there are so many other pressing health problems Americans face.

“Keep in mind that climate change is just one more example of how the environment will cause health problems, and I think most people understand that,” Obama responded.

Obama gave a personal example from when he was in college in 1979. He said his lungs would burn after only a five-minute run outside because of the pollution and smog in Los Angeles, according to Yahoo News.

However, also plaguing the president’s lungs could be his nicotine addiction. President Obama has admitted to smoking cigarettes and having a hard time quitting the bad habit.

In 2009, USA Today reported, Obama said, “I’ve said before that as a former smoker I constantly struggle with it. Have I fallen off the wagon sometimes? Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No.”