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Air care
BY: Jack “Miles” Ventimiglia, Editor
Jim Gargotta, 53, does not need a color alert to tell him when the metro area's air turns bad – his lungs ache with the news.
“I only push about 80 percent of capacity anyway, so on a bad, red day, that probably drops down to the 60s. If you're only using 60 percent of your lung capacity, I guarantee you're going to know the difference,” Gargotta, an asthma sufferer, said.
Kansas City's growing ground-level ozone problem threatens public health, James Joerke, Mid-America Regional Council Air Quality Program manager, said.
“We're breathing polluted air and that's a concern because there are about 25,000 kids in the metro, for example, that have asthma,” Joerke said.
Kansas City endured 25 “yellow alert” days from April 1 to July 31. Fourteen weeks remain in the ozone season. Yellow alerts warn that foul air poses a moderate breathing problem.
“The biggest implication is that we're not breathing clean air,” Joerke said.
The area also weathered “orange alerts” June 14 and 16, July 25 and Aug. 1. Orange warns of a greater challenge for asthmatics and others with breathing ailments. “Red,” the worst level, means bad air could make breathing tough for anyone.
Gargotta, Kansas City chapter treasurer for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, said bad air days represent bad quality-of-life days for people with lung ailments.
“I can't exert myself. There's no exercising on those days – absolutely not. You never go for a walk on those days,” Gargotta said. “I'm an avid bicycle rider, but you'd never do that. You've got to stay pretty much docile.”
All asthmatics should be concerned about diminished air quality, a nationally certified asthma educator and a neonatal/pediatric specialist, Dana Evans, said. Evans is a respiratory therapist for University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia and a Children's Hospital Transport Team member.
“As the air quality in Kansas City worsens, we'll see more asthmatic patients popping up and being diagnosed with asthma, and those who already have asthma spending more time in the emergency department or requiring more medication to control their symptoms,” Evans said.
Gargotta said he inhales a steroid daily.
“I have lots of 'rescue meds.' … I have a breathalyzer machine,” he said, “so I can give myself treatments.”
Gargotta said people who cannot afford medicine might also live in poor-quality conditions. When their lungs fail they seek immediate medical help at public expense to survive.
“They run to the emergency rooms,” Gargotta said.
Ground-level ozone is a man-made pollutant formed in the presence of sunlight from a chemical reaction between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds are emitted from a variety of sources such as cars and trucks; industrial and coal-fed power plants; and paint and solvent use. Ozone pollution can cause or increase the severity of heart and respiratory ailments of all types.
“A lot of the chemicals that are floating around serve as asthma triggers,” Evans said. “They actually induce asthmatic symptoms, which are the wheezing and the chest tightness and the coughing.”
An attack can cause far more than discomfort and distress for victims, she said.
“Depending on the patient and how compliant they are with the medication regimen, it could result in death,” Evans said.
Eleven Americans per day die from asthma and asthmatics account for 25 percent of all emergency room visits, according to the Washington-based Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
If Gargotta could talk directly to all of the drivers who dine at truck stops while leaving their big trucks idling outside, or to those who mow lawns during the heat of the day, or to those who insist on smoking in public places, he said they would hear this message:
“I would try to stress the fact there are a lot of kids, a lot of adults – not just with asthma, but emphysema and cystic fibrosis. …
“I would tell them to stop and think about what they're doing and how what they do affects the person next to them.”
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“I only push about 80 percent of capacity anyway, so on a bad, red day, that probably drops down to the 60s. If you're only using 60 percent of your lung capacity, I guarantee you're going to know the difference,” Gargotta, an asthma sufferer, said.
Kansas City's growing ground-level ozone problem threatens public health, James Joerke, Mid-America Regional Council Air Quality Program manager, said.
“We're breathing polluted air and that's a concern because there are about 25,000 kids in the metro, for example, that have asthma,” Joerke said.
Kansas City endured 25 “yellow alert” days from April 1 to July 31. Fourteen weeks remain in the ozone season. Yellow alerts warn that foul air poses a moderate breathing problem.
“The biggest implication is that we're not breathing clean air,” Joerke said.
The area also weathered “orange alerts” June 14 and 16, July 25 and Aug. 1. Orange warns of a greater challenge for asthmatics and others with breathing ailments. “Red,” the worst level, means bad air could make breathing tough for anyone.
Gargotta, Kansas City chapter treasurer for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, said bad air days represent bad quality-of-life days for people with lung ailments.
“I can't exert myself. There's no exercising on those days – absolutely not. You never go for a walk on those days,” Gargotta said. “I'm an avid bicycle rider, but you'd never do that. You've got to stay pretty much docile.”
All asthmatics should be concerned about diminished air quality, a nationally certified asthma educator and a neonatal/pediatric specialist, Dana Evans, said. Evans is a respiratory therapist for University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia and a Children's Hospital Transport Team member.
“As the air quality in Kansas City worsens, we'll see more asthmatic patients popping up and being diagnosed with asthma, and those who already have asthma spending more time in the emergency department or requiring more medication to control their symptoms,” Evans said.
Gargotta said he inhales a steroid daily.
“I have lots of 'rescue meds.' … I have a breathalyzer machine,” he said, “so I can give myself treatments.”
Gargotta said people who cannot afford medicine might also live in poor-quality conditions. When their lungs fail they seek immediate medical help at public expense to survive.
“They run to the emergency rooms,” Gargotta said.
Ground-level ozone is a man-made pollutant formed in the presence of sunlight from a chemical reaction between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds are emitted from a variety of sources such as cars and trucks; industrial and coal-fed power plants; and paint and solvent use. Ozone pollution can cause or increase the severity of heart and respiratory ailments of all types.
“A lot of the chemicals that are floating around serve as asthma triggers,” Evans said. “They actually induce asthmatic symptoms, which are the wheezing and the chest tightness and the coughing.”
An attack can cause far more than discomfort and distress for victims, she said.
“Depending on the patient and how compliant they are with the medication regimen, it could result in death,” Evans said.
Eleven Americans per day die from asthma and asthmatics account for 25 percent of all emergency room visits, according to the Washington-based Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
If Gargotta could talk directly to all of the drivers who dine at truck stops while leaving their big trucks idling outside, or to those who mow lawns during the heat of the day, or to those who insist on smoking in public places, he said they would hear this message:
“I would try to stress the fact there are a lot of kids, a lot of adults – not just with asthma, but emphysema and cystic fibrosis. …
“I would tell them to stop and think about what they're doing and how what they do affects the person next to them.”