American Lung Association Of The East Bay

Programs: Providing asthma programs and services is one of our top priorities as a result of the local East Bay community suffering among the highest asthma rates in the state of California, about 20 percent by most official estimates. Our asthma programs and services target kids from underserved populations that would otherwise not receive the help they need to manage this potentially deadly disease and live normal, healthy lives. We provide educational material to the community upon request, including informational videos and we have a registered nurse on staff that answers asthma-related questions over the phone. Oakland Kicks Asthma helps students with asthma improve their quality of life by teaching them how to recognize asthma symptoms, triggers, and management. Since its inception, Oakland Kicks Asthma has? - Conducted student asthma surveys at 17 campuses; - Provided free home-based management training to hundreds of asthmatic adolescents and families; - Worked with kids in the development of Kickin? Asthma, a classroom curriculum for middle and high school students using peer educators; - Trained school nurses and staff how to help students with asthma; - Introduced lung-function testing into Oakland clinics; - Placed the first ever school asthma-nurse in the Oakland Unified School District; and Staffed a new Teen Asthma Clinic at Children?s Hospital Oakland. - Began providing Asthma Education to inpatients at Children's Hospital Oakland. Each year, more than 400,000 Americans die from cigarette smoking. In fact, one in every five deaths in the United States is smoking related. This makes cigarette smoking the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States. Reducing and preventing tobacco use is the single most cost-effective way of saving not only lives, but millions of dollars in health care costs annually. The combined medical costs of smoking in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties has been estimated to be in excess of $700 million per year and a loss of 3,400 lives. Our tobacco-control programs and projects work on multiple levels, from assisting individual smokers that want to quit to working towards long-term policy and norm changes. Fresh Air for Little Noses provides training and resources for the child care services community for the purpose of implementing policies that (1) reduce young children?s exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke and (2) control and prevent the incidence of asthma. Secondhand smoke and asthma trainings for child care and service providers Helping centers and agencies implement smoke-free and asthma friendly policies and procedures