Issues That Affect You: AANMA Position Statements

1. Children's Rights to Carry Inhalers at School
  • Asthma is the leading cause of missed school days, causes more than 5,000 deaths each year, and affects nearly 5 million children. Yet many schools do not allow students to carry and use prescribed lifesaving asthma medication.

  • When they prescribe inhalers, physicians instruct patients to carry them at all times. Asthma can happen anytime, anywhere - in the classroom, on the playground, or in the lunchroom - so it's important for students to have immediate access to their inhalers.

  • As of June 2007, 47 states had laws protecting children's rights to carry and self-administer prescribed asthma medications at school (40 states also protect students with anaphylaxis).

  • Schools that restrict or revoke this right put themselves and students with asthma at risk. They also put other students at risk of witnessing a potentially life-threatening asthma attack.


2. Increasing School Nurse-to-Student Ratios
  • According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 56,000 school nurses serve the nation's 47 million public school students. But how can these nurses manage student asthma emergencies if they're shuttling between three or four schools each week?

  • It's important for every school to have a full-time registered nurse on staff.

  • Asthma is the leading cause of missed school days, causes more than 5,000 deaths each year, and affects nearly 5 million children.


3. Clean Air in Our Nation's Schools
  • Dusty, moldy, unhealthy air fills our nation's schools. Common allergens and irritants found in schools can trigger potentially life-threatening asthma symptoms.

  • The Environmental Protection Agency's Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Kit helps schools reduce indoor air pollutants at little or no cost, using in-house staff. Approximately 10,000 of the country's nearly 90,000 public elementary and secondary schools are using this kit.

  • We need national clean indoor air quality standards for America's schools.


4. Reducing Student Exposure to Idling School Bus Fumes
  • A Yale study found that school bus fumes may be to blame for the dramatic rise in asthma and other chronic respiratory illnesses among children (as reported in the Associated Press, 2/7/02). The study reported that children breathe school bus engine exhaust about 180 hours a year in the United States. Components of diesel exhaust damage genes, cause mutations, and lead to allergy and asthma symptoms, including inflammation and irritation of the airways. Exposure is worst when buses are lined up idling, picking up and dropping off students, and when buses are moving through heavy traffic, researchers found.



5. Emergency Department Specialty Care Referrals
  • According to the CDC, there were 2 million asthma-related visits to emergency rooms in 1998.

  • But many of these patients were never referred to asthma and allergy specialists for follow up and treatment. In fact, emergency room patients are more likely to be referred to a specialist for a broken leg than for asthma.

  • Studies show that when patients are under the care of an asthma specialist and follow a treatment plan, they make fewer visits to the emergency department.

  • The cost of poorly controlled asthma affects patients, their families, and society as a whole.


6. Need to Study the Core Causes for the Epidemic Increase in Asthma
  • Asthma affects 17.3 million Americans compared to 6.7 million in 1980, a 158 percent increase over the past 20 years.

  • Yet researchers still do not know what causes this chronic condition that kills more than 5,000 people each year and causes 10 million missed school days annually.

  • We need increased funding for asthma research so we can find a cause, develop a cure, and reverse the rising statistics.


7. Need to Accurately Count and Monitor Asthma Morbidity and Mortality Statistics
  • Asthma is more than just a wheeze or a cough. It can kill. In fact, it kills more than 5,000 people each year and most of those deaths were preventable with proper diagnosis and treatment.

  • By accurately monitoring asthma-related deaths, we can learn what's causing these deaths and hopefully begin to reverse the rising statistics.

  • In addition, advocacy groups like AANMA can use mortality statistics to bring greater attention to asthma as a serious disease that can kill.


8. State and Federal Health Agencies Must Work Together
  • State and federal health agencies must work together to ensure that all patients - regardless of age, geographic location, or income level - have access to the appropriate asthma medications and specialty care.

  • There is a disconnect between FDA approvals, research-based pharmaceutical companies, and patient access.

  • Patient access to asthma medications is often limited by restrictive formularies such as Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for low-income families.