Cliff Stearns: “Today is World Asthma Day, and tomorrow is Asthma Awareness Day on Capitol Hill. I am co-chair along with the gentleman…”

“Today is World Asthma Day, and tomorrow is Asthma Awareness Day on Capitol Hill. I am co-chair along with the gentleman from New York (Mr. Towns). Tomorrow I will be introducing legislation with the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy) called ASTHMA 2003. We intend to offer this legislation, and we think my colleagues should take a look at it and I hope they will cosponsor it. But today I want all of us to think about this disease which is increasing astonishingly rapidly and it is affecting 20 million Americans, over 5 million of which are children who are in school. Asthma is the most common cause of missed schooldays. That is 14 million annually. It costs us tremendously in lost time learning, lost productivity and earnings and medical expenses, including of course costly emergency room visits. While scientists work to understand asthma's prevalence and pharmaceutical makers discover new treatments, caring doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists dutifully diagnose and educate patients and parents and children with asthma soldier along, one different aspect I would like to talk about is the importance of remembering asthma medication in the role of self-preparation for emergencies.”