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EPA Administrator Focuses on Asthma Education and Prevention During Visit to Local School

Release Date: 4/25/2002
Contact Information:
EPA 303-312-6603,

Release Date: 4/25/2002
Contact Information:
EPA 800-227-8917

SALT LAKE CITY–EPA Administrator Christie Whitman today visited Lowell Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah where she got an update on the Open Airways for Schools program, which is designed to teach children (ages 8-11) how to detect the warning signs of asthma and steps to help prevent an asthma attack. Whitman also discussed the related health and environmental benefits of the President’s Clear Skies Initiative.

Asthma rates have increased 160% in the past 15 years in children under 5 years of age. Asthmatic children accounted for almost 220,000 hospital admissions and almost 780,000 emergency rooms visits in 1997. Asthma is the leading chronic illness in children of the United States and the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic illness.

EPA has taken numerous steps to help educate people about asthma and the steps they can take to address the problem. EPA launched a Smoke-Free Home Pledge Initiative, designed to motivate parents to protect their children from secondhand smoke. It includes a public service announcement and a national Smoke-Free Home Pledge Hotline. The Initiative is co-sponsored by key medical, consumer, and community organizations. The Smoke-Free Home Pledge hotline is (800) 513-1157.

In addition, EPA and The Advertising Council launched an aggressive nationwide campaign to educate parents about ways that they can help prevent asthma attacks in children. The creative concept for the Goldfish campaign came directly from the mouths of babes. A poster contest asked children to describe how asthma makes them feel and several children expressed it similarly through poster drawings and the words: It makes me feel like a fish with no water.

Addressing air pollution, a contributor to asthma and other respiratory problems, EPA’s new Diesel Rule will reduce emissions of air pollutants to help avoid more than 360,000 asthma attacks and 380,000 cases of respiratory symptoms in asthmatic children per year. EPA has also developed IAQ Tools for Schools Kit, an easy to use guide intended to support schools in preventing and resolving indoor air quality problems, including asthma. As a result, over 10,000 schools have taken steps to improve their indoor air quality.

During her visit Whitman also discussed the President’s Clear Skies Initiative. The Clear Skies Initiative will set mandatory cuts in the emissions of three major pollutants from power plants and will, over the next decade, remove a total of 35 million more tons of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury from the air than will be eliminated by the current Clean Air Act. At the same time, Americans will experience tens of thousands fewer cases of asthma and other chronic respiratory problems.

Clear Skies will achieve these reductions more quickly and with greater certainty than under current law and is modeled on the Acid Rain Trading Program, the most successful clean air program in history, having achieved more tons of pollution reduction than all other 1990 Clean Air Act programs combined.

Open Airways for Schools is an EPA supported nationally tested, asthma education program specifically designed for use in elementary schools. American Lung Association developed the curriculum and trains volunteers statewide to teach the lessons during the school day. Through group discussions, stories, games and role-play, volunteers instruct children to better manage their asthma. Consistent themes taught throughout the course are that asthma is treatable, an episode doesn’t have to be a crisis and people with asthma can live normal lives. Children who have completed the program reportedly have experienced fewer and less severe asthma attacks and have improved their academic performance.

For more information on the President's initiatives, please visit www.whitehouse.gov or www.epa.gov.