To breathe easier

Schools offer asthma-detection program to help kids stay healthy and active

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Like most children, the youngest students in Clairton love their recess, especially when they can go out to the playground.

They’re not likely to let anything stop them, even if they have asthma or trouble breathing, according to the school nurse, Maria DiCarlo. In one secondgrade class, three children have inhalers to help them breathe, according to their teacher. Although only kindergartners and first- and second-graders still get playground time, all students have gym.

Ms. DiCarlo said it’s usually after activity that she sees children who have asthma come in to use their inhaler kept in the nurse’s office.

“There’s a couple of them, who say they’re short of breath,” she said. On warm days this school year, they’ve visited her office and have gotten some relief from the air conditioning and a cool drink of water.

This year all 820 kids in the Clairton school district, including high school, are being screened for asthma in a program that aims to ensure any child found with asthma gets the care and education they need to manage the chronic condition.

If their child’s asthma is not controlled or diagnosed, parents are advised to go to their primary care doctor. If they don’t have one, the program gives them a referral to a doctor.

Also getting the screenings this fall are elementary students in the South Allegheny, Northgate and Woodland Hills school districts and Propel-Hazelwood charter school.

Parents are asked to fill out a fourquestion survey that will help determine if their child has asthma, and if so, if it is controlled by medication.

Heading up the effort are research partners Jennifer Elliott, associate professor in the School of Pharmacy at Duquesne University, and Pediatric Alliance physician Deborah Gentile. Last year they reported high levels of undiagnosed asthma among 1,200 children who lived near industrial sources of air pollution.

The current screening is offered as a public service to interested schools and is supported with money from the Breathe Project of the Heinz Endowments and the Jefferson Regional Foundation.

In children with asthma, the lungs and airways become easily inflamed when exposed to triggers, such as inhaling airborne pollen or catching a cold or the flu. Air pollution can worsen asthma.

In the earlier phase of the project, Ms. DiCarlo said, about 140 students were told they have asthma. She now has about 10 prescribed inhalers in her office, with only a few students regularly using them. Most take their asthma control medication at home each day, she said.

“Allergy season is quite miserable here in the school,” Ms. DiCarlo said. “One little girl used to come in every day.”

Debra Maurizio, Clairton’s elementary school principal, says the community has a heightened awareness of air quality and pollution’s effects on children’s health because of the nearby U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works, often cited as the major source of sulfur dioxides and airborne particulate matter emissions that exceed federal standards in the Mon Valley.

She said it was a “no-brainer” to welcome the asthma screening:

“It’s been wonderful to be able to offer students additional services,” she said, adding that the school also has onsite dentist visits and onsite mental health services.

“We were always aware we had a certain percentage of students who had asthma and breathing issues,” Ms. Maurizio said. In her research reported in 2017, Dr. Gentile determined the prevalence of asthma was 22.5 percent in the children living near industrial pollution sources. That is more than double the 10 percent estimated in Pennsylvania overall. Clairton children were among the study participants.

Out of 2,338 children already screened