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 Two decades ago, I took care of a young asthmatic girl in the emergency room.  It was a hot summer day, and Etta was having a severe asthma attack.  I promised her that I would not let her die.

Etta was not my first asthma patient, nor would she be my last.  In the last twenty years, asthma rates among children under age four have more than doubled.  Ask any school kid today if he or one of his classmates has asthma, and the answer will be “yes.”  Poor kids are hardest hit:  a recent study indicates that one-quarter of children in Harlem have asthma, more than three times the national average.  

One reason for this increase in childhood asthma is air pollution, especially in inner cities.  Numerous studies have demonstrated that asthma admissions to hospitals increase as the ground level ozone and particulate matter rises.  That’s why we have “ozone alerts,” which warn susceptible inner city children and the elderly to stay inside on hot, muggy days.  

But what would happen if ground level ozone levels were reduced?  Would acute asthma events also decrease?  The 1996 Olympic Games held in Atlanta provided a unique opportunity to study this question.  

To reduce traffic congestion during the Olympic games, the city of Atlanta closed the downtown area to car traffic; increased access to public transportation through additional buses and trains; and promoted flexible work schedules, car-pooling, and telecommuting for Atlanta workers.  The result:  for seventeen days, peak daily ozone concentrations decreased 28 percent.  Concurrently, acute asthma events dropped as much as 44 percent.  Atlanta’s inner-city children on Medicaid seemed to benefit the most, showing a more than 40 percent decrease in asthma-related emergency room visits. 

After the Olympics when Atlanta traffic patterns returned to normal, asthma visits and admissions shot right back up to former levels.

On that hot summer day in an inner city emergency room, I was not able to keep my promise to Etta—she was killed by an asthma attack exacerbated by air pollution.  But I am trying to keep my promise to God. He wants everyone to have access to clean air.  Riding a bike, taking the subway, and carpooling are ways we can all demonstrate our love for the Creator, his creation, and all our global neighbors. 

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Matthew Sleeth serves as Blessed Earth’s Executive Director and resides with his wife, Nancy, in Wilmore, KY.

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