From the President and CEO
Dear Friend,
The American Lung Association has begun our second century of service with tremendous success. Our leadership and public health efforts have dramatically reduced the threat of tuberculosis in this country. Our wellproven and consistent programs have reduced smoking rates nationally from 43% in 1966 to 21% currently. Smoking rates in the Greater Bay Area are even lower, just over 12%.
With these successes to fuel us, the American Lung Association stands ready to confront the major lung-health issues of the 21st century. The dramatic increase in asthma rates has caused the Centers for Disease Control to categorize asthma as an epidemic. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death in this country. Though we have made significant progress in our second-hand smoke and air quality programs, we must continue our vigilance to ensure everyone is breathing clean air.
These are big challenges and you can play a critical role in helping us meet them! Your American Lung Association is more able to focus on our mission than ever before with the support of an expanding team of excellent staff and volunteers throughout the Greater Bay Area. We are actively recruiting community leaders for our Regional Leadership Council to expand our sphere of influence, and foster synergy and economies of scale in program services, advocacy, and research by ensuring even better outcomes for the entire region.
The most significant component of our success going forward will be our valued friends, supporters and partners. We welcome opportunities to listen and learn from you, from health experts and especially from the patient’s perspective. There are more opportunities than ever to be involved with the American Lung Association.
I invite you to call us at 1-800-LUNG-USA to discuss how your time, treasure and talents can help improve life, one breath at a time. Or stop by our main office in Emeryville, centrally located to our service areas around the South Bay, West Bay and the East Bay.
With you by our side, our future is bright indeed. The volunteer leaders, medical professionals, program staff, health educators, policy advocates, researchers, and the many others that partner with this organization - are your American Lung Association.
Yours in Lung Health,
Karen Fulton
Send an email to Karen Fulton
American Lung Association Nurse from Bay Area Helps Bring Hope to post-Katrina New Orleans
For Beryl Shaw, a Registered Nurse working for the American Lung Association, protecting lung health is more than just a job—it is a mission and commitment that drove her to reach beyond the Bay Area, to New Orleans, where she joined the post-Katrina help effort. This is her tale from the Crescent City.
The waters have receded, but the suffering has not. In mid December, I had the privilege of being able to give back to the community as a volunteer nurse in New Orleans.
As I left for the Gulf Coast with the wholehearted support of the American Lung Association, I realized that my work at this organization had truly helped prepare me for the challenge that lay ahead.
The experience was amazing, exciting, and perhaps most of all humbling. For eight days, working in two clinics, I provided medical services, along with a large dose of compassion, caring, and just listening.
The residents who have returned to New Orleans face enormous challenges. The devastation is truly beyond description, and juxtaposed against the largely untouched French Quarter which remains lively but sparsely populated, one could almost forget about what has happened to these individuals.
I worked at a clinic close to the French Quarter. Many patients came to this clinic with an array of chronic conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, along with the inevitable upper respiratory infections, and generalized emotional trauma.
Many had lost all of their medications taken for chronic medical conditions and came into the clinic to get more medicine. Most seem shell shocked, having been dislocated and moved from place to place with little attention paid to their individual needs.
I was there to listen to them, to address their medical problems, to provide emotional support, and to be kind and caring. It was truly the experience of a life time, one that I will never forget, and one that will keep reminding me about the importance of the work I do at the American Lung Association, because it truly gave me the opportunity to help improve people’s lives, one breath at a time.
Beryl Shaw, RN
Health Educator for the American Lung Association
Call for TB funding to prevent resurgence
While tuberculosis (TB) cases dropped 2.9 percent nationwide (2005 compared to 2004), and 3 percent in California, increases were experienced in 23 local California areas.
On World TB Day (March 24), the American Lung Association of California cautioned that the decline in the number of cases continues to slow and called on the state of California to avert a TB resurgence in this state by increasing funding for prevention and control efforts.
California continues to report the highest number of TB cases in the United States. Case increases were experienced last year in Alameda, Berkeley, El Dorado, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Lassen, Madera, Mendocino, Monterey, Nevada, Orange, Pasadena, Placer, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama and Yolo.
For detailed statistics, the related news release and advocacy
opportunity,visit http://www.californialung.org/press/060322WorldTBDay.html
Court rejects Bush administration plan to gut Clean Air Act
A federal court rejected a Bush administration rule that would have sabotaged a key provision of the Clean Air Act. Agreeing with a coalition of public health and environmental groups, including the American Lung Association, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a loophole the Bush administration adopted for the law's new source review program would have allowed thousands of aging power plants and other industrial facilities to emit more air pollution, threatening the health of millions of Americans.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the administration¹s loophole contradicted the purposes of the Clean Air Act. For more information, contact Bonnie Holmes-Gen at 916.442.4446 or bhgen@alac.org.
For a copy of the ruling, visit
http://www.earthjustice.org/news/documents/3-06/ERP-ruling-3-17-06.pdf
American Lung Association funds research on immune system's defense against TB
Beatrice Saviola, Ph.D., is hoping to discover a way to make the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB) more susceptible to the immune system's defense mechanism to help combat the disease. She is studying the bacterium to determine how it can sense and resist environmental stress to survive in the body.
Dr. Saviola was one of 17 researchers who received funding last year through the American Lung Association¹s research program, which granted nearly $1 million to lung disease research in fiscal year 2005-2006.
For information about funded projects, visit http://californialung.org/research/research.html
ARE YOU PART OF AN ASTHMA WALK TEAM?
Spring Asthma Walks are right around the corner. Be part of a team and join an asthma walk near you.
Visit http://www.californialung.org/press/030925asthma.html
