Lung Blog

November 30, 2007

Are you a “face” of influenza?

Are you a “face” of influenza? There is a good chance you are among the more than 220 million Americans recommended to receive the influenza vaccine annually.

That’s more than 2 out of every 3 people in the US. Despite this recommendation, influenza vaccination rates are low, especially among those most vulnerable – including individuals with chronic respiratory conditions such as asthma and COPD.

Nationwide, influenza and its complications cause an average of 36,000 deaths and approximately 226,000 hospitalizations each year. These victims and millions more are the “faces” of influenza – people recommended for annual immunization by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The American Lung Association is pleased to be working with actress Jennifer Garner as the national spokesperson for the 2007-2008 Faces of Influenza campaign. Ms. Garner and I recently joined American Lung Association President and CEO Bernadette Toomey and national, state and local leading medical officials to kick off this year’s program with a media briefing and free public vaccination clinic in New York City. Nearly 800 New Yorkers were vaccinated throughout the day. It was great to see so many people roll up their sleeves to help prevent the spread of the influenza virus this season.

Widespread media coverage has appeared via national morning shows; New York City TV and radio news programming; newspapers; online news, health and entertainment outlets; as well as parenting and women’s lifestyle publications. Faces of Influenza activities are continuing across the country this influenza season, including efforts into January and even later.

Influenza is more than just a common cold; it is a serious respiratory illness. Individuals with asthma, lung disease and COPD need to be vaccinated, as well as anyone who lives with or cares for people with these illnesses.

Influenza immunization can continue through the spring. Influenza virus activity typically peaks in February or March, so vaccination throughout the entire influenza season is beneficial and recommended.

For more information about influenza or to use the Flu Clinic Locator please click here.

The American Lung Association’s Faces of Influenza educational initiative, made possible through a collaboration with sanofi pasteur, is designed to reinforce the seriousness of influenza and highlight the safety and effectiveness of annual vaccination throughout the influenza season.

Posted by lungblogposter at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

May 01, 2007

How healthy is the air you are breathing?

How healthy is the air you are breathing? You may be surprised to find out that the answer depends, in part, on which side of the Mississippi River you live.

The American Lung Association’s State of the Air: 2007 finds that America’s air quality picture is clearly split East-West. This is actually the first time we’ve seen a geographic split in the eight years that we have been sending out an annual air quality report card. Particle pollution (soot)—the most dangerous pollutant—increased in the East but decreased in the West. Ozone (smog) levels, on the other hand, dropped across the country from peaks reported in 2002. You can learn more about your own area’s air quality grades by checking out the report.

Why the split? Like most topics related to air quality, the complex answer revolves around sound science and federal policies intended to control pollution.

This year’s State of the Air reinforces our life-and-death need for more protective federal standards so that every community in the United States—East or West—can have truly healthy air to breathe. The report finds that 136 million Americans are breathing air that’s not safe. That’s unacceptable.

Every day, air pollution is affecting people’s health all over the United States. The air you’re breathing is cleaner than it was 30 years ago, but it’s still not healthy air!

Breathing ozone (smog) and particle pollution (soot) can literally shorten life, create life-and-death emergencies, and send our most vulnerable Americans to emergency rooms. We must protect them.

With all the research showing how harmful these pollutants are to the health of so many Americans, you’d think it would be simple to decide to clean up the air. But it’s not. Unfortunately, clear scientific evidence can get tangled up in politics.

Right now, we’re in the midst of a critical debate over how much pollution it too much. We at the the American Lung Association and our colleagues at most other health organizations are at odds with the federal government’s definition of what safe levels of smog and soot truly are.

And it’s that definition of “safe levels” of smog and soot that sets official limits on how much air pollution your community can have.

Understanding outdoor air pollution and how it affects human health is complex and can be overwhelming. The most basic piece of the puzzle to understand is that our lungs simply weren’t made to breathe the levels of air pollution Americans continue to have to inhale.

Here are some specifics about how our bodies can react to smog and soot:

• First and foremost, breathing particle pollution can kill. Someone can die on the very day that particle levels are high, or within one to two months afterward. Breathing particle pollution year-round can shorten life by one to three years. It causes many other health effects, premature births to serious respiratory disorders, even when the particle levels are very low. It makes asthma worse and causes wheezing, coughing and respiratory irritation in anyone with sensitive airways. It also triggers heart attacks, strokes, irregular heartbeat, and premature death.
• Ozone reacts chemically (“oxidizes”) with internal body tissues that it comes in contact with, such as those in the lung. When that irritates the respiratory tract, like getting a sunburn or rubbing sandpaper on a wound.
• Smog can cause health problems the day you breathe in high levels of smog, or after long-term exposure. It’s particularly dangerous for people with asthma and other chronic lung diseases, senior citizens, and children and teens.
• Smog can cause asthma attacks, coughing and wheezing, shortness of breath, chest pain when inhaling deeply, and even premature death. Breathing high levels of smog repeatedly over the long term may also lead to reduced lung function, inflamed lung lining, and increased breathing problems.
• Particle pollution is too small to really see—you can see the haze it creates when the sunlight hits it. Particles can be so microscopic that they’re one-seventh to one-thirtieth the diameter of a single human hair—or smaller.
• The body’s natural defenses help to cough or sneeze larger particles out of our bodies. But those defenses don’t keep out smaller particles, and they get lodged deep in the lungs, where they stay and can cause major damage. Some of the particles are so tiny that they can pass through the lungs into the blood stream and travel throughout your body like oxygen.
• When it comes to air pollution, children and teens are more vulnerable than you might realize. Their lungs are still developing, so they can be easily damaged. Because kids are so active and outdoors more often, they can end up breathing more air pollution per pound than adults.
• Many others are vulnerable as well, including probably someone in your family. Not only children and teens, but adults over 65, adults who work or exercise outdoors, anyone with a chronic lung disease like asthma or COPD, anyone with cardiovascular diseases or diabetes—all these people face much higher risk of harm from air pollution.

The bottom line is that too many people are breathing dirty air. America deserves air pollution standards that protect the health of the public—that’s what the law requires.

Why do air pollution standards matter?
States and the U.S. EPA must enforce the Clean Air Act to reduce air pollution to protect health. To do that, EPA sets standards that every community is required to meet. Local communities and states are legally required to control pollution in their areas so that air is as clean as federal standard says it must be.

Standards drive nearly everything the American Lung Association does to clean up air pollution. The tighter the standards are set, the less people will suffer. Right now, we have the rare chance to get EPA to make them tighter—and we have the evidence we need. The last time EPA looked at ozone standards was 1997. It turns out that what EPA thought was safe then, isn’t. We’re calling on EPA to set new standards for ozone at levels that would protect public health as the Clean Air Act requires.

You can let policymakers know you want them to protect the air you breathe. Sign up to join our e-advocacy team.

Posted by lungblogposter at 09:11 AM | Comments (1)

August 29, 2006

Back-to-School Asthma not a Top Priority for Parents

It’s that time of the year again – kids all across the country are returning to school. For parents the time leading up to the first day of school can be daunting. Tasks range from purchasing new school supplies and clothes to rearranging schedules to accommodate after school activities. Also on the minds of parents are concerns about their children adjusting to a new environment, new friends and new teachers. There is a lot to take care of. For parents of children with asthma there’s even more to consider.

A recent study conducted by the American Lung Association found that 73 percent of parents of children with asthma report they are concerned about how their child’s asthma will affect their ability to participate in school, yet the majority of those parents are not taking steps recommended by the American Lung Association to better manage their child’s asthma.

In addition, studies show that emergency room visits increase in September and October among children with asthma. The back-to-school months herald the cold and virus season, when children return to close classroom quarters after having spent the summer apart from one another. Viruses are a leading asthma trigger, as well as allergens including those that peak in the fall, indoor pollutants, and outdoor air pollution, which can lead to ozone alert days in September and October in some areas of the country.^1,2

There are some simple, basic steps parents can take to make sure their child’s asthma is under control and that their school is involved in managing it:

• See your child’s doctor—If your child is due for a check-up with his or her physician, make sure that happens before school begins!
• Know your child’s triggers—Be aware of what may be triggering asthma attacks, and work to keep him away from those allergens and triggers. Asthma triggers may include: exercise, smoke, pollen, dust, air pollution, animal fur, colds, flu and other respiratory infections.
• Understand your child’s asthma control—Keep track of nighttime coughing and/or waking, which may mean that asthma is not being well controlled, as well as actual asthma attacks. Work with your physician to be sure asthma is under control before school starts, which may decrease the chances of it worsening at the beginning of the year.
• Have a written Asthma Action Plan—Work with your child’s physician to complete a plan, which should include individualized information about your child’s asthma symptoms, daily medications, rescue inhaler or nebulizer treatments, any physical activity limitations or need for inhaler before strenuous activities, and specific instructions about what to do and whom to call if an asthma attack does not improve with medication. Click here to download a free Asthma Action Plan.
• Schedule flu shots—Talk to you child’s physician now about getting immunized against influenza in September or October. Preventing influenza may lessen asthma episodes and trips to the ER. Flu shots for people with asthma have been proven safe through research conducted by the American Lung Association.

Click here for more tips and resources to manage your child’s asthma as they return to school.

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1 Johnston, NW et al., The September Epidemic of Asthma Hospitalization: School Children as Disease Vectors. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. March 2006. Vol. 117(3); 557-562.

2 Neidell, MJ. Air Pollution, Health and Socio-economic Status: The Effect of Outdoor Air Quality on Childhood Asthma. Journal of Health Economics. Novemeber 2004. Vol. 23(6); 1209-1236.

Posted by lungblogposter at 12:47 PM | Comments (6)

February 24, 2006

Do Not Panic – Information on the reported inhaler shortage

In my blog last week I mentioned that there had been several reports about a shortage of albuterol CFC inhalers and that we were trying to gather more information on the subject. The articles that I’ve seen appeared in the Denver Post, Chicago Tribune, Salt Lake Tribune, Charlotte Observer, Fort Wayne Journal, Baltimore Sun and the Arizona Daily Star. I’ve also heard that there are reports of more limited supplies of generic albuterol in Oregon, Colorado, Maryland and Utah.

There are a couple of issues at play here that I want to explain. The elimination of CFC-producing inhalers is a public health benefit and a decision by the FDA that the Lung Association supports. CFCs have been shown to harm the protective ozone layer, so the goal is to eliminate all products that contain CFCs, but to give the pharmaceutical companies enough time to come up with options for the millions of Americans with asthma and COPD who use inhalers as part of their disease management plan. The official ban of CFCs does not go in to effect until December 31, 2008. Over the next two years we may see periods of shortages for this type of inhalers as manufacturers have already begun to convert their manufacturing to CFC-free alternatives. Shortages of traditional inhalers do not mean that the rescue medicine albuterol itself is running short. It isn’t. CFC-free inhalers with albuterol are now available, but you will need a specific prescription from your doctor to obtain one – a pharmacist cannot substitute this product for you. Depending on your insurance, these new inhalers may be more expensive, but our hope is that as more people move to the CFC-free delivery method that the price will come down.

The most important point to us at the Lung Association is the matter of asthma control. Patients with properly managed asthma should not need to use their quick reliever (rescue) medications very often because the asthma controller medication prevents asthma attacks. We hope that you have taken the Asthma Control Test to see if you have your asthma under control. After you take the test, share the results with your physician. The American Lung Association encourages physicians to adhere to NIH guidelines of asthma management and one major goal of the guidelines is to reduce the use of rescue medication by ensuring that the patients’ asthma is under control: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/asthma/asthgdln.pdf.

Again, I want to remind you to continue to take your medicine as directed by your physician. If you have questions about your asthma, talk to your physician.

Once again I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone that the Partnership for Prescription Assistance at 1-888 4PPA-NOW or 477 2669 is available to help assist people who cannot afford their prescription medication. Their website is www.pparx.org.

Posted by lungblogposter at 11:50 AM | Comments (3)

February 13, 2006

UPDATED: What you need to know about the latest FDA recommendation regarding inhalers containing CFCs…

A Food and Drug Administration panel recently came out with the recommendation to ban some non-prescription inhalers used to treat asthma because the devices contain CFCs which have been shown to harm the protective ozone layer.

Back in the 1990s, an international treaty known as the Montreal Protocol placed a ban on the use of CFCs. The American Lung Association led the successful effort to secure an exemption for metered dose inhalers (MDIs) from the Montreal Protocol, since CFCs have long been used as propellants in many of the MDIs used by lung disease patients. The exemption was needed to give MDI manufacturers time to develop CFC-free devices and provide an adequate transition period for physicians and patients.

This current recommendation applies to over-the-counter inhalers only. The ban on prescription inhalers containing CFCs is not scheduled to go into effect until the end of 2008, although there are already options in the marketplace now that offer a CFC-free alternative.

The American Lung Association highly recommends that people with lung disease work closely with their physicians to develop proper breathing management plans, which often include the use of prescription drugs. We do, however, recognize that a ban on the non-prescription inhalers could be a detriment to the health of individuals who can’t afford proper healthcare.

While we agree with the FDA’s recommendation, the announcement highlights the need for all people with asthma and other lung diseases to have access to regular medical care and life-saving medicines.

If you are having difficulty paying for your prescription medicine, please contact the Partnership for Prescription Assistance at 1-888 4PPA-NOW or 477 2669. Their website is www.pparx.org.

Click here if you’d like to read our statement on the proposed ban.

One final note …there have been several reports of a shortage of inhalers, but we have not been able to confirm that to be true. If you are concerned, please check with your doctor and pharmacist to see if your local area is affected.

Posted by lungblogposter at 07:20 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2005

"Katrina" Cough and Flu

Two items in the news this week that I thought I’d comment on. The first is about “Katrina Cough.” Soon after Katrina hit, we predicted that we might see an increase in respiratory illnesses and we have been particularly concerned about people with asthma or COPD. It seems more widespread than I thought showing how many people have allergic reactions to mold if exposed to high enough levels. My great concern in seeing this is that our prediction about the increase in asthma attacks might well be true as well, but we have not seen the data perhaps because emergency rooms are not really functioning optimally yet. Based upon this report, I believe that there is an urgent need to assess whether many people are experiencing increased asthma severity and whether they are being cared for adequately.

The second story is about Maxim Health closing its public flu clinics for lack of flu vaccine supply. This is yet another indication that CDC should rethink its entire strategy behind yearly flu recommendations and focus on the major transmitters: school-age kids as being as important as or more important to get to first than the elderly. Some high risk group members [e.g. elderly] are far from fully protected by the vaccine.

I urge you to get your flu shot as soon as possible, especially if you have asthma, lung cancer or COPD. Tell us how you found your flu vaccine this year.

Posted by lungblogposter at 08:43 AM | Comments (12)