Asthma

Slowly, ever so slowly, hotels are recognizing that travelers who suffer from severe asthma and allergies triggered by dust mites, mold, smoke, pollen, chemicals and animal dander might like to stay in hypoallergenic rooms -- for a price. With as many as one in four travelers coughing, sneezing and wheezing their way through the day, or night, the thought crossed a few minds to develop hotel rooms that are free of all the nasty stuff that causes guests to feel as if their airways are clogging.

A Baltimore-based nonprofit group announced yesterday that it will receive more than $1.2 million in federal grants for lead-poisoning and asthma-abatement programs for city children. In addition to the grants, the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning announced a partnership with the Housing Authority of Baltimore City to provide 75 emergency-relocation vouchers for families of children with lead poisoning. The vouchers' estimated worth during the next five years will be $3 million, said Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano.

In previous years, when you asked anyone around the City football team to pick out the team jokester, most pointed at James Carmon, as his easygoing manner and ability to deliver the quick needle helped keep things light in the huddle. But since he has become a senior, Carmon has grown more serious. Carmon, 6 feet 7 and 330 pounds, made it known over the summer that he was going to approach this year with a new focus, mainly in pursuit of a state championship. He got in better condition.

A panel of health experts updated federal guidelines yesterday for treating asthma - a disease that continues to beleaguer Maryland and hits particularly hard in African-American communities. The National Institutes of Health report, containing the first new guidelines in a decade, urges doctors to treat underlying problems that can worsen asthma, such as obesity, and make sure that patients continue taking medications even when symptoms abate. The panel recommends that patients use two kinds of drugs: emergency medications to relieve temporary symptoms and long-term controllers to reduce the risk of life-threatening asthma attacks.

Asthma is the most common chronic disorder among American children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the respiratory disease affects 6.2 million children under age 18. And while many of the stimuli that can trigger an asthma attack -- including sudden temperature change, pollen and respiratory infections -- cannot be avoided, some can. In fact, parents can go far in preventing asthma attacks in their children with hearty doses...

The children seemed scarcely interested in the classroom discussion on asthma until Eric Kriner brought out the pig lungs. "Ewwwwww," they exclaimed while huddling with wide eyes around the red, wrinkled blob that had been preserved for demonstrations. Then Kriner, a clinical education director at Prince George's Community College, attached a squeeze pump to the lungs and blew them up like balloons. "Look at it!" "Awesome!" "Can I touch them? I eat pork!" It was Monday morning, and Camp Superkids, an annual, weeklong residential camp for Maryland youngsters with asthma, had gotten off to a gross start - just the way kids like it. The group of mostly 7- to 10-year-olds were so delighted by the lung demonstration that their moods had clearly shifted from that of moments earlier, when Kriner asked what it felt like to have asthma and some solemnly spoke of breathing difficulties, burning throats and being rushed to the hospital.

INSIDE TODAY WHAT THEY'RE SAYING TODAY'S SUN COLUMNISTS Imaging Dixon Jean Marbella: Is Sheila Dixon's ranking at the top of The Sun's poll about her image as mayor or as mom? Maryland baltimoresun.com/marbella Ready for some football? With the opening of Ravens training camp rapidly approaching, at least the Orioles are providing some diversion. But that doesn't mean it's too early to start thinking football as well. Sports baltimoresun.com/sports OTHER VOICES Dan Thanh Dang on simple solutions -- Business Tim Smith on summer Tosca -- Today 5 THINGS TO DO TODAY Collage works -- Dave Plunkert's newest collage of paintings is on view at the University of Baltimore Student Center, 21 W. Mount Royal Ave. 8 a.m.-11 p.m. Free.

Nearly 20 million people (about 9 million of them children) in the United States suffer from asthma, according to the National Institutes of Health. An asthma attack or episode can include symptoms such as wheezing, coughing and difficulty breathing. And summer, with its heat and high humidity, can be a particularly difficult season for those who have the chronic disease, says Dr. John Bacon, an allergy, asthma and immunology specialist at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson. Why are the summer months difficult for asthma sufferers?

Metro area : Health care Free screenings for asthma planned Allergists will be offering free asthma screenings to children and adults at several Baltimore-area sites over the next month. Participants will complete a questionnaire about their breathing problems and will take a lung function test, which involves blowing into a tube. The service, part of a national program, is being sponsored by the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. Sites include: the Baby and Family Fair at Eastpoint Mall, Essex, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday; YMCA Healthy Kids Day, 1000 N. Market St., Frederick, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

NEW YORK -- In New York City, air pollution levels have typically been monitored by inanimate objects, at more than a dozen locations around town. But in the South Bronx, from 2002 to 2005, air pollution monitors went mobile. They went to the playground, to the gritty sidewalks, even to the movies. A group of schoolchildren carried the monitors everywhere they went. The instruments, attached to the backpacks of children with asthma, enabled researchers at New York University to measure the pollution the children were exposed to, morning to night.