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State/Federal Agency Summit Results in Action Agenda to Arrest Pediatric Asthma in New England

Release Date: 06/06/2000
Contact Information: Alice Kaufman, EPA Community Affairs Office, (617) 918-1064

Boston - Following a first of its kind summit on pediatric asthma, Federal officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. departments of Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development announced today a three step action agenda to address the asthma epidemic in New England.

The plan developed and agreed to by Federal officials and the commissioners from each of the New England states environmental and health agencies calls for:

• The establishment of a Regional Coordinating Council represented by government and non-government agencies to set New England-wide public health and environmental policy that will result in healthier children. The council will act as the central organizing forum, support state efforts, and act as a conduit for shared data and information about New England's children.
  
• The establishment of an Asthma Tracking Initiative that supports statewide surveillance efforts, creating a core set of measures including schools, homes and outdoor exposures to asthmagens.
  
• The development of a coordinated outreach effort that promotes new guidelines for design and renovation of school buildings, and public and affordable housing units.

Across the United States, in rural and urban communities, rates of asthma have more than doubled in the last fifteen years. It is a significant public health problem and the most common chronic disease of childhood, affecting at least five million youngsters. The cost of asthma to the U.S. economy is at least $14 billion, with the majority of the expense attributed to medical care.

"It is time to put our children's health at the top of the New England agenda," said Mindy Lubber, EPA New England regional administrator. "Forging new partnerships with our colleagues in the health and housing fields means that we have, for the first tine, the opportunity for an integrated strategy to reduce pediatric asthma rates that addresses children where they are - in their homes, in schools, and playing outdoors."

"We need to treat asthma as a preventable disease by addressing its environmental and economic roots," said Judith Kurland, HHS regional director. "Establishing a surveillance program is key in our ability to track disease rates and the impact a multi-agency approach has on reversing the asthma epidemic."

"Probably the single most effective strategy for maintaining the safety of public housing is training our maintenance staff in what to look for in the units and to schedule repairs that include making the units safe for asthmatic children," said MaryLou Crane, HUD regional director.

A regional asthma agenda builds on the national Cabinet-level initiative to reduce environmental impacts on children's health, and seeks to complement rather than duplicate state and local initiatives, and emphasize prevention of exposure to known asthma triggers, in homes, schools and the outside environment, instead of relying on medical treatment of asthma alone.

The coordinating council will release in the coming months a detailed agenda for the near-term that will likely include greater emphasis on outreach and education efforts for physicians and nurses, public housing inspectors, maintenance workers, peer counselors, school administrators, teachers and parents.