Tennessee bad place for asthma sufferers: researchers

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America placed a number of the state’s cities high in its rankings of asthma risk factors in U.S cities. Tennessee cities account for three of the top 10 worst cities on the list, with Memphis at No. 6 and Nashville at No. 9.

“People say this is the most allergic place in the country,” said Dr. Michael Miller, a Knoxville allergy and asthma specialist. “I can say, we’re busy.”

The study, released Tuesday, measured asthma “risk factors” in 100 metropolitan areas. Johnson City is No. 12 on the list, and Chattanooga is 17.

But the rankings, which take into account such things as smoking laws and access to specialized asthma care, aren’t perfect, officials said.

For instance, an upcoming report shows Knox County asthma rates for adults are on par with state and national rates, said Mark Prather, health planner for Knox County. He also said asthma-related hospitalization rates for Knox County are lower than the national average.

“I’m not arguing with all these risk factors for asthma but for some reason, we don’t have higher asthma rates — at least, not yet,” Prather said.

Tennessee cities scored poorly on several factors, including pollen count, lack of laws that ban smoking in public places, laws that control access to inhalers, the amount of asthma “rescue” medication used, number of prescriptions written for asthma control, lack of insurance and low air quality.

Miller said many people don’t realize asthma is often caused by allergies.

“We’ve got a tremendous amount of pollen exposure here,” Miller said. “Allergies play a major role in asthma.”

Officials said the state also consistently has pollutant levels above federal limits.

Greg Reed, head of the University of Tennessee’s department of civil and environmental engineer, said he’s determined that an increase in ozone levels in East Tennessee causes more people to report asthma problems.

“From our study, there was evidence that we had a need to improve air quality here in the valley, because of the probability that it was causing more respiratory problems,” Reed said.
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On the Net:
Asthma rankings: www.AsthmaCapital.com