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EPA Supports Children’s Hospital to Help Children with Asthma - Philadelphia kick-off of the smoke-free home pledge

Release Date: 10/1/2004
Contact Information: Bonnie Smith, 215-814-5543

Bonnie Smith, 215-814-5543

PHILADELPHIA – U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Regional Administrator Donald S. Welsh presented a $248,500 asthma grant to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The grant will support Children's Hospital's community asthma prevention program which goes into people's homes to identify ways to reduce asthma triggers.

“Children’s Hospital’s community asthma program is improving the lives of children with asthma. We are proud of our partnership with them and this program. We want to help protect kids with asthma from the environmental risks that can make their asthma worse,” said Welsh.

Today’s grant will supplement in-home asthma education visits for 120 families during the next two years. As a part of today’s event, participants and families in the community asthma prevention program were some of the first to sign a new ‘smoke free pledge.’

The Community Asthma Prevention Program and EPA are working on raising awareness about the dangers of tobacco smoke in the home, especially for kids with asthma. Getting people to make the commitment to a smoke-free home by signing the pledge is an important step. Almost 50 percent of families enrolled in the west Philadelphia home visitor program have smokers in the home.

During the past three years, Children’s Hospital’s community asthma prevention program has reached more than 1,200 individuals. Through to program, they have been informed about the environmental triggers that cause asthma and what they can do to prevent it. Program participants have decreased emergency room visits, hospitalization, and missed school days.

Nearly five million children across the country suffer from asthma. As startling as the numerous trips to the hospital are the days our children are missing from school - now more than 14 million school days are missed each year.

October is children’s health month. It=s a time when EPA makes a special effort to help raise awareness about how the environment affects children=s health.

For more information about reducing asthma triggers see EPA’s website at
https://www.epa.gov/athma. For more information about the smoke-free home pledge check out
https://www.epa.gov/smokefree.