Multiple School Districts In West PA Have "Off The Charts" Asthma Rates Among Students - Up To 37.6% [View All]

[hatrack]

PITTSBURGH -- Asthma in school-age children has never been higher. The national and state average is 11 percent and climbing. A Team 4 investigation discovers several school districts in western Pennsylvania that are far higher than the average.

Team 4's Jim Parsons reported the school district that's been yelling the loudest about its high asthma rate is South Allegheny, where the air quality has tested among the worst in the nation for particle pollution. Team 4's investigation found other school districts that have higher numbers of kids with asthma and one that is simply off the charts.

In the most recent numbers from the state Health Department, Baldwin-Whitehall School District reported 15 percent of students with asthma. Steel Valley schools reported 16.5 percent, South Allegheny reported 17.6 percent and Sto-Rox schools reported 18 percent of students with asthma.

At Propel Charter School in Homestead, the asthma rate was above 20 percent. The school district that's the biggest loser with asthma, for two school years in a row, is Northgate, located along Ohio River Boulevard in Avalon and Bellevue. The most recent numbers here put the asthma rate at 37.6 percent of all students. "That's a public health emergency," said Myron Arnowitt, Pennsylvania state director of Clean Water Action. "I've studied this issue. I've read the scientific literature on asthma. Numbers over 30 percent are off-the-charts high."

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