Step for a Moment into the Shoes of Someone with Asthma

Attendees participate in experiment to better understand asthma.

The hazards of dirty air took on new meaning recently for a group of adults who gathered to learn more about the effects of air pollution on our health.

Amanda Lanier, coordinator of programming and operations at the Center for the Environment at Catawba College, led the group through this experiment. You can do it, too.

Find a full-sized straw and a smaller straw that is typically used to stir coffee. Take two deep breaths, hold your nose and breathe through the full-sized straw. That simulates a healthy adult with somewhat constricted air passages on an ozone action day.

Now do the same thing with the smaller straw. That simulates the difficulty a child with asthma experiences.

Now consider these facts:
• Every year in North Carolina, soot pollution causes an estimated 200,000 asthma attacks with an additional 200,000 caused by smog.
• Air pollution leads to an estimated 1,500 new cases of asthma and 2,500 cases of chronic bronchitis in adults each year in the state.
• Air pollution leads to an estimated 6,000 hospital admissions for respiratory disease and 2,000 for cardiovascular disease annually.
• It also causes dozens of infant deaths and hundreds of thousands of school absences because of illness.

Those who experience breathing difficulties on high ozone days don’t need statistics to understand that air pollution is detrimental to their health. The fact is that it can affect healthy people, too.