Release date: 12/05/2001
Contact Information: Naomi Mermin, Council Director, (207) 775-4776
Alice Kaufman, EPA Community Affairs, (617) 918-1064
Manchester, NH - A group of federal, state and private agencies announced a plan today to reduce skyrocketing rates of asthma in New England. The plan, announced during a meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire, of the New England Asthma Regional Council, involves better tracking of asthma rates, family health education, and new government policies aimed at improving air quality outdoors, in schools and in homes.
The 12-point action plan grew out of a summit meeting in May 2000 involving state and federal housing, health and environmental leaders. The group met several times to draw up a plan for reducing the environmental triggers of asthma.
"This group representing different agencies and states has come up with a comprehensive, aggressive plan for reducing the asthma epidemic in New England," said Robert W. Varney, regional director of EPA's New England Office. "Since we know there is a clear relationship between asthma and environmental triggers, we have absolutely no excuse for not acting now. Some of the action plan items will lead to measurable health results for our children." EPA has invested about $300,000 in asthma prevention activities in the past year and another $65,000 that directly supports the ARC.
"We are delighted to be working with government and non-government partners across the housing, environment, school and public health sectors in New England, " said Albert K. Yee, M.D., M.P.H., Regional Health Administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in New England. "Interdisciplinary collaboration is the key to reducing asthma incidence and severity, improving diagnosis and treatment, and understanding the causes and the triggers of this epidemic."
"New Hampshire recently received a three-year grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control for asthma. The grant will allow us to develop a statewide action plan to address this public health problem," said Dr. William Kassler, State Medical Director at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.
New England asthma rates, as reported recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rank among the highest in the nation. In Massachusetts the prevalence rate is 8.5 percent, in Maine 8.9 percent, in New Hampshire 8.3 percent, in Vermont 7.2 percent, in Connecticut 7.8 percent, and in Rhode Island 8.5 percent. In low income and minority neighborhoods, the number of people who suffer from asthma is as high as 14 out of every 100, with children suffering disproportionately.
Nationally, the number of Americans afflicted with asthma more than doubled to almost 15 million between 1980 and 1996. The associated annual health care costs have been estimated at $12.7 billion.
Asthma, the most common chronic childhood disease is one of the leading causes of school absenteeism – an estimated 10 million school days. Low-income and minority populations experience much higher rates of fatalities, hospital emissions and emergency room visits due to asthma.
The action plan announced today targeted action items in the areas of education, surveillance, reducing exposure indoors and reducing exposure outdoors.
Specifically, the plan calls for:
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