A Place Where No One Breathes Easy

California's San Joaquin Valley Has High Asthma Rates And The Worst Air Pollution In The U.S.

(CBS)  It takes good lungs to be on a marching band anywhere, but it's a particular challenge in California's San Joaquin Valley, CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports.

"Oh, I would say 20 or 30 kids probably have asthma in the band," says Mike Hipp, Buchanan High's band director.

Asthma is common on the football team, too. When the air is particularly bad, coach Mike Vogt takes his players inside to practice.

"Football's not a game to be played indoors, but that's a possibility," Vogt says. The air quality has "no doubt" changed the way he coaches.

This stretch of farmland and small cities outside Los Angeles has the worst air pollution in the United States. One child in six has asthma — more than three times the national average.

"Once in a while, I start to cry because I think I'm going to die," Ryan McVicar says. Both Ryan and his brother Robert have asthma.

"It's like something's just punching your throat and you just stop breathing," Ryan explains. "Like you can't get air."

Their mother has no doubt the Valley's heavy pollution is to blame.

"I know that my kids are having to live in this air and it's only going to get worse if we don't get some help," says Gay McVicar.

The 240-mile-long San Joaquin Valley is in part a victim of geography. It's a huge bowl, meaning that polluted air has nowhere to go. On some days it's so dirty you can almost see the thick air you're breathing. The hot gasses are trapped in the Valley and baked in the sun, creating a dangerous mixture.

Sprawling suburbs, busy roads, and intense agriculture all foul the air.

"Essentially, the Valley has a chronic disease, and it's called pollution," says Kevin Hamilton, a registered respiratory therapist. "When you have a chronic disease, you have to change the way you live your life if you want to survive."

As part of the change, people in the Valley check the air quality forecast the way others check the weather. Air quality flags go up each morning at schools, telling kids how safe it is to breathe. Each color has its own degree of warning.

On red days, when pollution is particularly bad, kids like Robert and Ryan wait until early evening to play outside, when the air is a bit cleaner.

Efforts to clean up the air are under way, but they'll take years — not soon enough to let this generation breathe easy.

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The American Lung Association has more information. You can reach the office nearest to you at 1-800-LUNG-USA and/or speak with registered nurses and respiratory therapists about air pollution and health or any other lung health issue.

[drinuk]

I am 67, I have suffered with Asthma for all of those years albeit that at this ripe old age I now have control without medication, Yes No Puffers !! I was born at the start of the war in England, Heavy Industry, Steam Locomotives and every home being heated by open Coal Fires. Thick black fog lasting up to three weeks at a time and by the age of 7 I had lost over 40% of my lung capacity and my immune system was totally shot. We got rid of the filthy industry, the steam trains and the coal fires and things did improve but whilst those visible acrid poisons dissapeared, we are now on a dreadful upward spiral of the invisible, the vehicle exhaust fumes. The time as come to go green, the oil companies can do more and so can vehicle manufacturers, however we must be more radical, the Asthma figures will get worse and must be arrested by the politicians. Ban the gas guzzlers, private personal vehicles should be restricted to 1900cc, local taxation on higher rated vehicles should be charged at $2000 per annum (all tax collected going to Local chest hospitals) and carry fender stickers stating "I am Killing Someone Today" It is time to get real because it is pointless waiting for Big Pharma to cure it, the've done nothing for me in the last 60 yrs, they rely on people becoming dependent. Finally, all Asthmatic kids should have compulsery breathing lessons at school for one hour a day, it does work and I am living proof of that treatment, It's cheap and very effective.