May is Asthma Awareness Month, a time to build awareness, and a means for health care providers, school officials, employers and parents to be reminded of the causes and ongoing effects of this chronic disease.

May is Asthma Awareness Month, a time to build awareness, and a means for health care providers, school officials, employers and parents to be reminded of the causes and ongoing effects of this chronic disease.



According to the New Hampshire State Asthma Plan, the prevalence of adult asthma is higher in New Hampshire than in the United States as a whole. Asthma means missed work and higher health care spending — often by people who can least afford it.



Asthma also affects 9.5 percent of U.S. children — 7.1 million boys and girls. Numerous studies have found that air pollution exacerbates asthma in children; a study in Southern California further suggests that air pollution may actually cause asthma in otherwise healthy children. In communities with the highest ozone levels, children who participated in sports were more than three times as likely to become asthmatic, compared with less active children.



A warmer-than-average June and August in 2012, combined with the third-hottest summer on record in the United States, helped create a smoggy soup of unhealthy air for New Hampshire's residents last summer. Ozone pollution is directly linked to temperature, thus, warmer temperatures from future climate change could likely lead to increased ozone levels.



Analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that climate change-induced ozone increases in New Hampshire could result in about 16,000 additional cases of serious respiratory illnesses in 2020.



Air pollution from power plants, industry, and cars and trucks all influence ozone formation. Hot, dry sunny weather can also trigger "code orange" days. Last year, Boston saw an increase in the number of days when ozone levels reached "code orange" on the Air Quality Index (AQI), or "unhealthy for sensitive groups." Rockingham County, struggling to control ozone pollution, gets a "C" from the American Lung Association. Our region must work even harder to maintain healthy air quality in a warming climate.



For decades, New Hampshire has been described as "the tailpipe of the nation" because pollution from Midwest and mid-Atlantic power plants mixes with smoggy air and descends on our Granite State communities. Fossil fuel-based power plants create carbon pollution that warms the Earth and increases ozone levels.



The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, after considering scientific evidence and public comments, determined that carbon dioxide pollution threatens the public health and welfare of the American people. Regulation by the U.S. EPA is required to help prevent further asthma cases. The nation, and New Hampshire, needs cleaner air to protect the health of our population.



Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte need to support the EPA's efforts to curb carbon pollution, and in doing so, lessen the incidence of environmentally induced asthma. There is cause for optimism from the voting records and public comments of both senators. Sen. Shaheen says the Clean Air Act has been one of the greatest public health success stories we have ever had in this country. Sen. Ayotte last year voted against a Senate measure that would weaken national standards for mercury and air toxics coming from power plants.



However, past experience is not a guarantee of future performance. The EPA's resolve to clean New Hampshire's air, and the reaction of our senators, deserves our diligent attention beyond this May's Asthma Awareness Month and through the dog days of our upcoming summer.



Patrick Miller serves as a research associate professor at the New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice and as senior staff for the N.H. Citizens Health Initiative.