Environmental Health
Aired July 8, 2004

A recent study by a group called Population Connection ranked Cleveland as the least kid-friendly major city in the nation. The group looked at quality of life issues including education, poverty, and health. Cleveland received an average grade of C-, the lowest score for the 20 largest urban areas in America. As part of our series Tomorrow’s Promise: Helping Children Left Behind, ideastream’s Julie Henry looks at some of the environmental hazards that can literally make Northeast Ohio kids sick.

Fenton Moore is a pretty typical 12-year-old. The Eastlake seventh grader likes to surf the Internet, play paintball, and hang out with his friends. But there’s one thing that sets him apart from most kids. Fenton has asthma. It’s a chronic lung condition that can result in coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Fenton was diagnosed with the disease around the time of his first birthday. Since then, his asthma attacks have landed him in the hospital about once every year. And he’s been to the emergency room more times than he can count.

Fenton Moore: And the part that I don't like about going to the hospital is the I.V. in my arm. I don't like that.

For asthmatics like Fenton, a narrowing of the breathing tubes can be triggered by a variety of things: pollen, animal dander, dust, air pollution, cigarette smoke, cockroaches, and even the common cold. And though five different medications help Fenton control his symptoms, he says living with asthma is no picnic.

Fenton Moore: It keeps me from doing a lot of stuff, like when I go over to my friend's house and they have animals and they want to go in and play their PlayStation or whatever, I can't go in because then my asthma will be triggered and then I have to go home. It just feels like you can't breathe anymore. And you get all sleepy and you can't really feel anything. Like you can feel your heart going slower and slower. And so I have to get home and either do puffs or I have to do the treatment.

The aerosol breathing treatment Fenton gets at home is similar to the one he receives periodically at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, where Dr. Carolyn Kercsmar has been caring for him since he was a toddler. Dr. Kercsmar is the director of the hospital’s Asthma Center. She says that data collected since 1990 show that asthma rates are skyrocketing, especially among children.

Carolyn Kercsmar: It's gone up well over 75% nationwide. Local and regional data are a little harder to come by, but we have been involved in some school screening programs over the past several years and we also find that the prevalence has increased dramatically. And in some areas we find that it may be as high as 15-20%, which is well-above the national average of about 7-10%.

While researchers are still investigating the causes of rising asthma rates, they suspect a combination of factors: mutations of infectious diseases, shifts in the immune system, and changes in environmental exposures, including air quality. And Ohio’s air quality ranking is poor – 49th in the nation, according to the Ohio Environmental Council. Kids living in the inner city face even greater risks, as they’re more likely to live near factories or on busy streets with lots of diesel truck traffic.

Dr. Kercsmar says kids are also more likely to be exposed to poor indoor air quality.

Carolyn Kercsmar: We have a problem within many areas of aging housing stock, children spend to spend more time indoors than outdoors, particularly in some locales, they spend a lot of their day in school, there's some problems with some school buildings.

Older buildings in the inner city pose another health risk, doctors say, and that’s lead poisoning. Lead-based paint was common in construction through World War II. If a home is well maintained, the lead paint doesn’t pose much of a problem. But in cities like Cleveland, where census figures show a poverty rate of 50%, many families don’t have enough money to keep their homes in good repair. Peeling and chipping lead paint – widely believed to cause brain damage when ingested by children – has been shown to be common in such homes.

When it comes to Asthma, Dr. Kercsmar says some simple steps can go a long way toward improving indoor air quality.

Carolyn Kercsmar: Keep indoor air humidity low and clean up any water sources or water damage. That will help prevent the growth of mold. Washing bedding in hot water once a week kills dust mites. If you do have a roach problem there's some things that you can do as well. Don't leave food around, clean up any dirty dishes, seal up trash, remove water sources, and seek the advice of a certified pest management firm.

In Cleveland, Julie Henry, 90.3.