The son of Esther Bejarano was 11 months old when asthma landed him in the hospital. She did not know what his symptoms had caused – neither she nor her husband had asthma – but she suspected it was the pesticides that were sprayed on the agricultural fields at her family’s house.
Pesticides are one Well -known contribution to asthma And are often used where Bejarano lives in the Imperial Valley in California, a country surrounded region that extends two provinces on the border between the US and Mexico and is one of the most important producers of the country’s winter crops. It also has a number of the worst air pollution in the nation and one of the highest percentages of asthma -asthma supply rooms in the state, collected according to data by the California Department of Public Health.
Bejarano has since learned to manage the asthma of her now 19-year-old son and works at Civic Committee del ValleA local rights organization aimed at environmental justice in the imperial valley. The organization trains health workers to inform patients about good asthma management, so that they can prevent hospitalization and eliminate triggers at home. The course is so popular that there is a waiting list, said Bejarano.
But that of the group Asthma Management Academy Programs and similar initiatives are nationally confronted with the massive dismissals of the Trump administration, cancellations and proposed cuts at the Ministry of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency. Asthma experts fear that the cumulative impact of the reductions can lead to more there -visits and deaths“ Especially for children and people in communities with low income populations disproportionately vulnerable to the disease.
“Asthma is a preventive condition,” said Bejarano. “Nobody should die from asthma.”
Asthma can block airways, making it difficult to breathe, and in severe cases death can cause if they are not treated quickly. Almost 28 million people in the US have asthma, and about 10 people still die from the disease every day, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
In May the White House has one Budget proposal that would permanent shutter The National Asthma Control Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent dismissed from the federal health department in April. It is unclear whether the congress approves the closure.
Last year, the program Puerto Rico and Washington, DC allocated to $ 33.5 million on initiatives in 27 states, to help communities with asthma education. The financing is divided into four -year subsidy cycles, in which the programs receive up to $ 725,000 per year.
Committee Civico del Valle’s Academy in South California, a doctor workshop in Houston, and asthma Medical Management Training in Allentown, Pennsylvania – ranked the most challenging US City to live with asthma – belong to the programs that largely survive on these subsidies. The first year of the current subsidy cycle ends on 31 August and it is unknown whether the financing will continue.
Data suggesting that the National Asthma Control Program of the CDC has had a considerable impact. The Agency own research has shown that the $ 71 program saves in health care costs for each $ 1 invested in. And the death rate of asthma decreased by 44% between the launch of the 1999 and 2021 program, according to the American Lung Association.
“Losing support from the CDC will have devastating effects on asthma programs in states and communities throughout the country, programs that we know to improve the life of millions of people with asthma,” said Anne Kelsey Lamb, director of the Regional Asthma Management and Prevention program of Anne Kelsey Lamb, director of the Regionale -Management -Management -Management and Preca -Management -Management- “And the thing is that we know a lot about what works to help people keep their asthma well controlled, and that is why it is so devastating.”
The Trump administration mentioned cost savings and efficiency in the April announcement of the cutbacks on HHS. Requests for comments from the White House and CDC about cuts on federal asthma and related programs were not answered.
The information wars
Fresno, in the heart of the Central Valley in California, is one of the top 20 of the top 20 in the country ‘asthma capitals’, with high percentages of asthma and related emergency situations and deaths. It is the home base of programs that receive financing through the National Astma Control Program. Healthcare professionals also rely on a different aspect of the program that is threatened when it is closed: national data.
The federal asthma program collects information About asthma rates and offers a tool to study prevalence and death percentages by the disease, see which populations are most influenced and assess the state and local trends. Asthma -educators and caregivers are concerned that the loss of these figures could be the greatest impact of the cutbacks, because this would mean a lack of information that is crucial for forming trained recommendations and treatment plans.
“How do we justify the services we offer if the data is not there?” Said Graciela Anaya, director of Community Health at the Central California Asthma Collaborative in Fresno.
Mitchell Grayson, chairman of the Medical Scientific Council of the asthma and Allergy Foundation, is involved in the same way.
“My fear is that we will live in a world that was frozen in January 19, 2025, because that was the last time you know that this information was collected safely,” he said.
Grayson, an allergist who in Columbus, Ohio, said that he is also worried about the websites of the government will remove important recommendations that asthma patients avoid heavy air pollution, get annual flu pricks and get COVID-19 vaccines.
Disproportionate risk
Asthma disproportionately influences the communities of color because of ‘historical structural issues’, said Lynda Mitchell, CEO of the asthma and Allergy Network, referring to a greater chance of living in social housing or nearby motorways and other sources of pollution.
She and other experts in the field said that cuts on diversity initiatives between federal agencies, in combination with the recovery of environmental protection, have a major impact on these risk populations.
In December, the Biden administration has awarded almost $ 1.6 billion Via the EPA’s Community Change Grants program to help disadvantaged communities tackle pollution and climate threats. The Trump government moved to reduce this financing in March. The subsidy freezes, they have been temporarily blocked By the courts, part of a wider effort By the Trump EPA to eliminate help to programs for environmental justice in the entire agency.
In 2023 and 2024, the National Institutes of Healths are Climate change and health initiative received $ 40 million for research, including the connection between asthma and climate change. The Trump Government has moved to cut That money. And one March memo In essence, all NIH subsidies aimed at diversity, fairness and inclusion, or dei-financing much of the asthma programs that communities with a low income that depend on.
On top of those cuts are environmental lawyers such as Isabel González Whitaker from Memphis, Tennessee, worries Proposed reversations From environmental regulations, the health of communities such as that of it will further damage it that are already faltering of the effects of climate change. Shelby County, the home of Memphis, recently received an “f” About the annual of the American Lung Association reporting card To have so many high ozone days. González Whitaker is director of Ecom address, a program within the National Organization Moms for Clean Air that argues for better environmental conditions for Latino communities.
“Urgent asthma needs in communities get misgst at a time when I only see things worse in terms of deregulation,” said González Whitaker, who brought her 12-year-old son because of respiratory issues for the first time this year. “We are attacked by this data and science, which clearly explains that we have to do better to maintain the regulations.”
Back in the Imperial Valley in California-where the majority-Spanish population is the largest lake of the working class, the Salton Sea, is an area called Bombay Beach. Bejarano calls it the ‘forgotten community’. Houses there are missing clean running water, because of naturally occurring arsenic In the groundwater, and residents often experience a scent like rotten eggs that blow from the drying loop bins, expose Decades of pesticide-tinted dirty.
In 2022, A 12-year-old girl died In Bombay Beach after an asthma attack. Bejarano said that she later heard that the girl’s school had recommended that she participated in the Athma Education Program of Comite Civico del Valle. She said the girl was on the waiting list when she died.
“It touched at home. Her death showed the personal need we have here in Imperial County,” said Bejarano. “Deaths can be prevented. Asthma is reversible. If you have asthma, you should be able to live a healthy life.”
KFF Health News is a National Newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health problems and one of the core activities of KFF is-a independent source of research, polling and journalism of health policy. Read more about Kff.
Use our content
This story can be re -published (details) for free.
#dusty #corner #California #endangered #cuts #Trump #asthma #care #fears #fears #KFF #Health #News