Don't take fresh air for granted By Christopher Loh/ Staff Writer Friday, March 10, 2006 A committee in Watertown is speaking out for those psychiatric inpatients who lack the right to fresh air.   The Committee for Fresh Air Rights was started by Watertown resident Jonathan Dosick, who was unable to speak to the TAB due to his employment at the Disability Law Center.   CFAR member Joseph Carson, also a Watertown resident, said when he was hospitalized in the Cahill Ward of Cambridge Hospital in 1975, he was taken on "conducted walks" through the city common.   Now, according to Carson, most hospitals, including Mount Auburn Hospital and Massachusetts General, do not allow time for fresh air.   A step toward alleviating the matter, Carson said, is the introduction of proposed legislation to make mandatory fresh-air time for inpatients.   The legislation is sponsored by 14 different legislators and proposes to add fresh-air time as the sixth fundamental right to the "Five Fundamental Rights" currently in place for inpatients.   The bill was discussed by the Joint Committee for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, co-chaired by state Sen. Steve Tolman, D-Boston.   Carson compared the lack of fresh-air time for inpatients to the treatment of criminals in prisons.   "Inmates are allowed to be outdoors for a certain amount of time," Carson said. "We're seeking, at a minimum, those rights."   Carson was adamant that fresh air helps inpatients recover from their illnesses.   "It helps to bring them along in their treatment," Carson said. "Exercise itself gets the body circulating, not just physically, but in mental and emotional health as well. Everybody knows taking a walk to cool off is better than just sitting in the ward like a stale lump."   Carson said exercise helps the body to "function as a total organism."   "It was certainly beneficial to me," Carson said.   Some of the other organizations supporting the legislation include the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill of Massachusetts, the Disability Policy Consortium, the National Empowerment Center and the Massachusetts Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee.   Christopher Loh can be reached at cloh@cnc.com.