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The Children’s Hospital Wins Grant To Fight Asthma

Release Date: 11/3/2000
Contact Information: Carol Febbo (215) 814-2076

Carol Febbo (215) 814-2076

PHILADELPHIA -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today awarded a $130,000 grant to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The grant will support the hospital’s in-home asthma education efforts and assess the effectiveness of this approach in educating children with asthma, as well as their parents and care givers in the West Philadelphia area, where the hospital is the primary source for inpatient and emergency room care. Efforts include identifying indoor asthma triggers and how to mitigate them.

“Asthma is now at epidemic proportions and the statistics are sobering. We are concerned about the role that air pollution, both indoors and out, is playing in this growing national epidemic. Any parent with an asthmatic child can tell you how serious this disease is. The more we do to promote in-home education and assistance, the more asthmatic children will be able to feel healthy again,” said EPA Regional Administrator Bradley M. Campbell.

Asthma has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. In the past 15 years, new cases of asthma have increased 75 percent and an alarming 150 percent in very young children. As of 1998 nearly 38,000 children have asthma in Philadelphia, with more than 8,000 of these children living in West Philadelphia alone. According to a report issued by the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year, indoor environmental pollutants play a significant role in the development and exacerbation of asthma.