I spend 100 percent of my time like this. A parents' group is campaigning to change the beginning of the school year to September, which has fewer poor air quality days, as many believe air pollution triggers asthma. A chronic inflammatory lung condition that can be set off by allergies among other triggers, asthma closes down airways so breathing is hard. But mortality rates have increased since the l970s, and doubled nationally in the last 20 years. Because children have smaller airways, they run greater risk.
Some school nurses report more days absent for asthma than common colds.
A strict program of preventive care can keep the condition under control, but it can be expensive. Central Valley towns have some of the state's highest unemployment rates, even in boom times. And some advocates for youngsters with asthma say despite NIH guidelines, physicians do not educate parents and patients properly, indeed may not even understand treatment well. Some suggest the local man- made environment may be part of the answer. No one suggests farming and ranching be curtailed.