US EPA Administrator Visits Orlando High School, Talks Asthma and Air Pollution
Thursday, May 15, 2014
By: Ernest Duffoo

May 15, 2014 | WMFE, Orlando - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy visited an Orlando high school to talk about asthma and its link to pollution. The visit coincided with asthma awareness month.

The students at Dr. Phillips high school conducted an experiment with McCarthy, placing socks on the tailpipes of a few cars.

“It showed them how the sock turned dirtier the older the vehicle was,” McCarthy said. “They could sort of visibly see the work the EPA’s done with car manufacturers to get them cleaner and reduce their pollution.”

According to the Florida Department of Health, in 2011, one in ten public school students in Florida have asthma, or approximately 77,000 students.

In 2012, one in six middle and high school students reported an asthma attack in the past year.

Most of the students conducting the experiment had asthma, said McCarthy.

“I think they’re well aware that air pollution is a trigger and exacerbated asthma attack[s],” McCarthy said.

“In asthma awareness month, we want to just call attention to it and the work we’re doing, and make people aware that it’s a problem that we need to address together.”

For reasons still mostly unknown, asthma effects some populations more than others, says McCarthy- particularly Hispanics.

McCarthy also talked about the risks climate change poses to public health and the environment.  

“These are not just public health challenges that we’re facing, but these are serious economic issues where we’re paying for a changing climate already,” McCarthy said.

“So the real question is, what actions can we take to address that climate change today to keep our communities safer and more resilient, but also how do we reduce greenhouse gasses which will over time make that change more dramatic.”