• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics Celebrates Victory for Schoolchildren

Posted on: Wednesday, 4 May 2005, 15:00 CDT

FAIRFAX, Va., May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA) celebrated a victory for children battling for the right to breathe in school. Today, all but 4 states passed laws or have pending legislation protecting schoolchildren with asthma.

In 1997, 11-year old Philip Hernandez died while waiting for school staff to give him his asthma medication. Philip was not allowed to carry his inhaler at school, although he carried it everywhere else.

That same year, AANMA held its first Asthma Awareness Day Capitol Hill to raise awareness of issues important to children and families living with asthma and allergies. At the time, states, school boards, principals and even individual teachers had the right to decide whether a student could carry lifesaving prescription medication in school. These rights differed from school to school and from year to year. Each year, schoolchildren died on playgrounds, in classrooms and in nurses' offices.

By 2001, after state-by-state efforts failed to change this system, a nation of parents came together to take their message to Congress. They found champions in Representatives Joe Barton (R-TX), Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), who were concerned that few states protected students' rights to carry asthma and anaphylaxis medications while at school. "The 'zero-tolerance' movement of the 80s and 90s had the unintended consequence of depriving millions of young people with ready access to the medications they need to live," said Representative Stearns.

In May 2003, Representatives Stearns and Kennedy introduced the Asthmatic Schoolchildren's Health Management and Treatment Act of 2004 to create incentives for states to protect students' rights. At the time this legislation was introduced, 18 states had asthma laws and nine had anaphylaxis laws.

On May 4, 2005, Representatives Stearns and Kennedy presented AANMA President and Founder Nancy Sander with a copy of the legislation, which was signed into law by President Bush in October 2004. This law encourages states to protect the rights of schoolchildren with asthma and anaphylaxis. States have responded rapidly: Today, 42 states have asthma laws (four have pending legislation) and 26 states have anaphylaxis laws (eight states pending).

Find out more at Asthma Awareness Day Capitol Hill, an annual educational event held the first Wednesday of May in Washington, DC. Through this event, AANMA provides a public forum to brief lawmakers about issues affecting people with asthma and allergies. The event is open to the public and features free asthma screenings, pulmonary function tests and medication safety checks.

Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating suffering and death due to asthma, allergies and related conditions. Founded in 1985, AANMA's core areas of expertise are education, advocacy and outreach. AANMA's flagship publications -- Allergy & Asthma Today magazine and The MA Report newsletter -- and Breatherville.org Web site are consumer lifelines to medical news and healthy living. For more information about Asthma Awareness Day Capitol Hill, contact Dawn Merritt at 800-878-4403, x109 or e-mail dmerritt@aanma.org.

Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics

CONTACT: Melissa Hess, +1-202-530-4552, or Melissa_Hess@was.bm.com, forAllergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics

Source: PRNewswire

More News in this Category