Asthma by the Numbers

Colorado has the 2nd highest prevalence of asthma of any state in the nation. The estimated rate of asthma is 7.1% in Colorado, which ties with the state of California. Colorado's population is less than 1/8 of California's.

In 2004, an estimtaed 83,763 children in Colorado had asthma, up from 48,757 in 2003, a nearly 50% increase. An estimated 250,000 adults have asthma in Colorado. Of adults with asthma in Colorado, most (14.5%) are ages 18-24.

In 2000, there were an estimated 4,000 hospitalizations due to asthma in Colorado. More than 1,700 were among children. In 2000, there were 59 deaths due to asthma in the state.

In 2001, a total of 3,897 people died from asthma in the United States.

For infants with asthmatic mothers, the incidence of difficulty breathing increases 55%for every 19 parts per billion increase in 8-hour ozone concentrations. Today's 8-hour ozone levels increased from 10 to 47 parts per billion at the CAMP monitor at 2105 Broadway. Similar increases were measured at virtually all other Denver metro ozone monitors.

Emergency room vists for asthma increase by 26% when hourly ozone levels exceed 60 parts per billion. Today, hourly ozone concentrations exceeded 60 parts per billion at 11 monitors in the Denver metro area.

For every 50 parts per billion increase in hourly ozone pollution, the chances of asthmatic children suffering asthma attacks increases by more than 35%. Just today, hourly ozone levels increased from 8 to 71 parts per billion at the Carriage monitor at 12th and Julian in Denver.

Asthma costs were estimated to be $1,238 per person in the United States in the mid-1990's. Given this, asthma costs the state of Colorado over an estimated $413,198,594 annually. This is $30,186,428 more than the total 2005 budget for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The total cost of asthma to the United States was estimated to be $16.1 billion in 2004.

In a recent article in the Boulder Daily Camera, the Executive Director of the Regional Air Quality Council, Ken Lloyd, stated that spending $100,000 for more precise and mobile ozone monitoring in the Denver metro area was too expensive. Yet this is only .02% of the cost of asthma on the state of Colorado.

The more precise and mobile monitors, which could have helped to reduce potentially unhealthy levels of ozone in parts of the Denver area that lack stationary monitors, flew away to Texas earlier this month to help Houston reduce its pollution.