What is Asthma?
What Happens in an Asthma Attack?
Who Gets Asthma?
How Are Children Affected By Asthma?
What Triggers Asthma Attacks?
About Asthma Triggers
If I Have Asthma, What Can I Do?
National Academy of Sciences Report - "Clearing the Air: Asthma and Indoor Air Exposures"
Asthma is a lung disease that can be life threatening.
Asthma is a chronic, or long-term disease, which can affect you for the rest of your life.
Asthma causes breathing problems. The airways in the lungs get blocked, causing the lungs to get less air than normal. Symptoms of an "asthma attack" can be difficulty with breathing, a tight feeling in the chest, coughing and wheezing. Asthma can develop quickly and it can range from being a mild discomfort to a life-threatening attack if breathing stops completely. Asthma problems are often separated by symptom-free periods.
When asthma causes breathing problems, the breathing problems are called asthma attacks or episodes of asthma.
During an asthma attack, three major changes that can take place in the lungs include:
- Cells in the air tubes make more mucus than normal. This mucus is very thick and sticky, and tends to clog up the tubes.
- Cells in the airways get inflamed, causing the air tubes to swell.
- The muscles around the air tubes tighten.
These changes cause the air tubes to narrow which makes it hard to breathe.
In the United States, about 15 million people of all age, race, and nationality have asthma.
Asthma can occur at any age but is more common in children than adults.
Nearly 1 in 13 school-age children has asthma, and that rate is rising more rapidly in preschool-aged children than in any other group. Asthma is the leading cause of school absenteeism due to a chronic illness.
The impact of asthma falls disproportionately on African-American and certain Hispanic populations and appears to be particularly severe in urban inner cities.
Many cases of asthma likely go undiagnosed.
Asthma is the most common long-term childhood disease, affecting 4.8 million children. Nearly 1 in 13 school-aged children has asthma, and the percentage of children with asthma is rising more rapidly in preschool-aged children than in any other age group.
Asthma accounts for one-third of all pediatric emergency room visits and is the fourth most common cause for physician office visits. Asthma is one of the leading causes of school absenteeism, accounting for over 10 million missed school days per year. Asthma also accounts for many nights of interrupted sleep, limitation of activity, and disruptions of family and care-giver routines.
Asthma symptoms that are not severe enough to require a visit to an emergency room or to a physician can still be severe enough to prevent a child with asthma from living a fully active life.
Children breathe more air, eat more food, and drink more liquid in proportion to their body weight than do adults. Their developing bodies may be more susceptible to environmental exposures than those of adults. In a typical day, children may be exposed to a wide array of environmental agents at home, in day care centers, schools and while playing outdoors.
Read the EPA publication, "IAQ Tools for
Schools: Managing Asthma in the
School Environment." and visit EPA's
Schools
web site.
Asthma attacks can be caused by something that bothers the lungs. These are called asthma triggers. There are many kinds of asthma triggers. Two major categories of asthma triggers are allergens and irritants.
If you, or a loved one has asthma, it's important to learn which triggers are a problem. Ask your doctor to help. Your doctor may suggest keeping an asthma diary or recommend skin testing for allergies.
Once asthma triggers are known, actions can be taken to prevent asthma attacks. Cutting down exposure to your triggers may help in avoiding asthma attacks. When attacks occur, they will probably be less severe.
There are many asthma triggers. Two large categories of triggers are allergens and irritants.
Allergens are substances that cause no problem for a majority of people but which trigger an allergic reaction in some people. During an allergy attack, the body releases chemicals called mediators. These mediators often trigger asthma episodes.
Irritants such as cold air, cigarette smoke, industrial chemicals, perfume, and paint and gasoline fumes can trigger asthma. These irritants probably trigger asthma symptoms by stimulating irritant receptors in the respiratory tract. These receptors, in turn, cause the muscles surrounding the airway to constrict, resulting in an asthma attack.
Viral infections are the leading cause of acute asthma attacks. Surprisingly, bacterial infections, with the exception of sinusitis, generally do not bring about asthma attacks.
Since Americans spend up to 90% of their time indoors, exposure to indoor allergens and irritants may play a significant role in triggering asthma episodes.
The following is a list of some of the indoor environmental asthma triggers:
Information on some additional triggers available on this website includes:
If you have asthma, you probably want to know how to reduce your chances of having an asthma episode and what to do once you have an asthma episode. Your doctor will be able to assist you. Consult your physician to set up an asthma management plan. Your doctor can help you learn to monitor your asthma, take appropriate medication for your asthma, and identify and avoid your asthma triggers. Following your asthma management plan will help keep your asthma under control.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to undertake an assessment of the role of indoor air quality in the growing asthma problem. EPA asked NAS to characterize the state of the science on health impacts and prevention strategies, and to provide recommendations on needed research. In response to this request, the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine has issued a report, Clearing the Air: Asthma and Indoor Air Exposures, on the role of indoor environmental pollutants in the development and exacerbation of asthma. The report affirms the Administrator's asthma initiative to educate the public about the ways they can help control asthma by managing indoor air quality. The report concludes that exposure to indoor pollutants is an important contributor to the asthma problem in this nation. Asthma sufferers should consult with their doctor about reducing their exposure to secondhand smoke, dust mites, pet dander, molds, and cockroaches. For more information, read our brochure Clear Your Home of Asthma Triggers: Your Children Will Breathe Easier
(HTML |
PDF)
(also available in
Spanish a 280KB PDF file) or call our Indoor Air Quality
(IAQINFO) hotline at 1-800-438-4318.
A full copy of the NAS report is available at
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/9610.html.
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