With Knoxville recently ranked as the #1 asthma capital in the country, and 4 other cities statewide making the list of the top 25 worst places in the U.S. to live with asthma, the American Lung Association says it’s time for Tennessee to get tough on this serious and sometimes even deadly chronic lung disease.

Margaret Smith, the Lung Association’s director of education and advocacy, says Tennessee’s rankings in the Asthma and Allergy Foundation’s (AAAF) 2008 report of the worst places to live if you have asthma should be a wake up call.  “Through research taking place right here in Tennessee and nationwide we’re making progress in finding a cure for asthma,” said Smith.  “Until we get there, there is so much more we can and should be doing to lessen the terrible burden asthma places on our state.”

Since 2004, the AAFA has issued a report ranking the largest 100 metropolitan areas in America based on the quality of life for people with asthma. The Foundation’s rankings are based on 12 factors grouped into three categories: (1) Prevalence factors such as crude death rate for asthma and estimated prevalence of adult and pediatric asthma; (2) Risk factors such as air pollution, pollen counts and public smoking bans; and (3) Medical factors such as the number of asthma medications used per patient and number of asthma specialists in an area.  

Knoxville rose to the top of the 2008 Asthma Capitals due in part to its higher than average annual pollen counts, high pollution, weak public smoking bans and the high use of asthma “rescue” medications per patient. 

Other TN cities making the top 25 on the list were Memphis (#5), Chattanooga (#16), Johnson City (#17) and Nashville (#25).  No other state had so many cities make the list.

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