Originally posted on EquityBlog, a project of PolicyLink
By Shireen Malekafzali, PolicyLink Health Associate
TAKE A BREATH...sounds easy huh? Well, not for one in every seven kids in the US.
Asthma attacks -- struggling to breathe, wheezing, gasping for air -- are frightening events for children and their families. Asthma is the most prevalent chronic children’s disease in the US, affecting one in seven children nationwide and, in some communities, as many as one in every four kids. Low-income communities and communities of color are hit the hardest.
In the US, 19% of Puerto Rican children and 13% of black children have asthma. Compare that to just to 8% non-Hispanic white children.
Asthma triggers lurk in the most mundane places. Children with asthma, and their families, live with the fear that their kid’s asthma may be triggered anywhere -- their homes, schools and even at the playground. By car and truck exhaust. Mold hidden in the walls of an apartment. Caustic chemicals used to clean school hallways. All of these triggers can bring on a sudden and dangerous asthma attack.
To allow children to breath easy, we need to give them clean air. Parents, environmental health and justice groups, housing organizations, and community-based organizations know that no single family can do this alone. That’s why they have forged important alliances and garnered the attention of the public and policymakers.
A new report by PolicyLink and The California Endowment, Breathing Easy from Home to School: Fighting the Environmental Triggers of Asthma, sheds light on ways that community-based organizations and coalitions across the nation are working to address environmental triggers of asthma.
The report offers some great policy recommendations that have already shown tremendous promise. Some of these diverse recommendations include: promoting public transportation; advocating for systematic housing code enforcement; and, making sure schools use green cleaning products.
These approaches constitute an important platform for igniting a movement to alleviate -- and maybe eliminate -- childhood asthma. Policymakers and others can build upon these lessons to enact needed changes.
All children should be able to breathe easily -- where they live, learn, and play.