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Sonoma County Asthma Coalition
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Asthma In Schools

Most people spend the majority of their time indoors. Children spend most of their time at home or at school. Both of these places can be full of triggers that will spark an asthma episode. At home, triggers can include second-hand smoke, mold, dust mites, and animal dander.

Asthma Patient

Indoor air quality is at schools is a growing public health concern. Classrooms, especially portables, can be sources of poor indoor air quality.

A recent state study identified several environmental conditions that need improvement in portable and other school classrooms. These included inadequate design, operation, and maintenance of ventilation systems; contaminants present at undesirable levels in the air and floor dust; excessive noise levels; and mold and moisture problems. Triggers can spring from any of these inadequacies.

 
Asthma is the number one reason for school absenteeism due to a chronic illness. An estimated 14 million school days are missed each year in the United States due to asthma, and an equal amount of work days are missed by parents of these children.

Sonoma County Asthma Coalition is working to support school districts and personnel to protect kids from potential triggers at school.

You can help with this work by contacting the coalition through email or phone.
 

Asthma patient being examined
School Air Quality
Care2 Network
The School Air Quality Survey for Students may be of interest to folks. The Care2 web site also covers a variety of healthy living issues.
www.care2.com/channels/solutions/consumer_guides/61
Health & Energy
Has lots of information for schools on indoor air quality.
www.healthandenergy.com/school_air_quality.htm
Generation Green
Has a school air quality section including an overview on air quality and information on health risks.
http://www.generationgreen.org/school%20air%20quality%20overview.htm

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Indoor Air Quality
Scorecard
Information on criteria air pollutants, hazardous air pollutants and other environmental data. You can enter you zip code to obtain data on your local area.
www.scorecard.org
Environmental Protection Agency - TRI
The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a publicly available EPA database that contains information on toxic chemical releases reported annually by certain industries.
www.epa.gov/tri/tridata
Environmental Protection Agency - AirNow
Has air quality forecasts for local areas.
www.epa.gov/airnow
California Air Resources Board
Data on air quality, emissions, and modeling
http://www.arb.ca.gov
Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD)
Encompasses all of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Napa Counties, and portions of Solano and southern Sonoma.
 
Reports available on the web include Annual Bay Area Air Pollution Summaries, Ozone Attainment Plans, Toxic Air Contaminant Control Program Annual Report.
www.baaqmd.gov
National Allergy Bureau - Pollen & Spore Counts
A section of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology's (AAAAI) Aeroallergen Network that is responsible for reporting current pollen and mold spore levels to the media (staffed by AAAAI member volunteers). Closest monitored cities are Pleasanton, San Jose, and Sacramento.
www.aaaai.org/nab/western.stm
Healthy Indoor Air
Site has a number of indoor air quality related things. They also have a links section that has more information.
www.healthyindoorair.org

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Updated by webmaster on December 7, 2005