 Health Impacts of Air Pollution: AsthmaLet's start with posing the basic question of what is asthma? According to the American Lung Association asthma is the sixth ranked chronic health condition in the United States and the leading chronic long-term illness of children. It is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that causes airways to tighten and narrow, causing difficulty in breathing. The airways in the lungs get blocked causing the lungs to receive less air than normal. Air pollution has been shown to induce asthma attacks. During an asthma episode, or attack, the sensitive airway linings react to trigger exposures by becoming inflamed, swollen and filled with mucus. The muscles lining the swollen airways tighten and constrict making them even more narrowed and obstructed. These actions can then result in coughing, wheezing, chest tightness and shortness of breath. A person suffering from an asthma attack has a sensation similar to drowning. The symptoms, frequency, severity and duration of an asthma attack also vary from person to person. An estimated 17 million people of all ages, and nationalities in the United States suffer from asthma. Of that estimate, 5.3 million are under the age of 18. Asthma can occur at any age but is more common in children than adults. Asthma is the leading chronic illness of children and the leading cause of school absenteeism in the United States. About 5,500 people die from asthma episodes each year and more than 80% of them are children! The number of deaths due to asthma, the number of people in the United States diagnosed with asthma and the health care costs of asthma continue to increase each year. (Information from Lung Disease Data 2000 and the Environmental Health Center) For more information on asthma, visit the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America: http://www.aafa.org/ |
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