June 21, 2018 – Asheville, NC – With the official start of summer this morning at 6:07am, HEALTHeWeather is launching our product landing page for DailyBreath. As much of the country experiences hot temperatures and high humidity, converging with air pollution and pollen to create risky conditions for asthma sufferers, we are bringing a new approach to managing this risk.
May 4th, 2018 – Asheville, NC – Not being a climatologist, meteorologist, or environmental health specialist is a challenge when you are trying to raise awareness of the exposure impacts of the weather and the environment on health. However, that’s because the model for the distribution of weather and environmental knowledge and information is based on old power. We have a system that distributes weather and environmental exposure information to the masses when in fact individuals are sensitive to these exposures uniquely.
May 2, 2018 – Asheville, NC – The hypotheses when we started DailyBreath was that weather converged with air pollution and pollen to raise the risk of a respiratory patient experiencing symptoms or, worse, breathing difficulty resulting in a respiratory attack. Evidence-based research supported by CASE Consultants International found studies that validated that there was an increase in symptoms and in negative health outcomes like ER visits when specific weather variable thresholds were met.
May 1, 2018 – Asheville, NC – May is National Asthma Awareness Month. Today is World Asthma Day. 60% of adults and 90% of children with asthma have allergies. Unfortunately, 40% of those with allergies have never been tested to determine their predominant allergens. Every allergy season is different, in part, because of ever-changing weather conditions. This year is no different.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018 – Last year, it was reported in some regions that because of warmer temperatures the onset of pollen allergy season occurred earlier than normal for their region. In addition, often the combination of warm temperatures along with increased precipitation was estimated to contribute to robust plant growth and, thus, more pollen spores released into the atmosphere.
Monday, December 18, 2017 – The Winter Solstice arrives this Thursday, December 21st, at 11:28AM EST. Winter is not usually known for traditional exposures that often impact asthma like high pollen presence. However, in certain parts of the country, specific trees are pollen producing during the winter months.
Thursday, November 30, 2017 – I was pleased to participate yesterday in a one-day workshop presented by the National Science Foundation ASSIST Center hosted by the North Carolina State University ASSIST Center in support of the Department of Defense. The workshop was entitled, Warfighter Wearables in 2020: Human Performance Monitoring on the Edge. One of the three focus areas, and the one to which I gravitated towards was environmental exposure monitoring.
Monday, November 27, 2017 – Most parts of the country have experienced their first frost of the year, signaling the end of a longer allergy season than usual because of lingering warm temperatures. While 75% of asthma patients have allergies and the absence of pollen would lead many to lower their guard in the winter, there are still specific weather conditions that can cause asthma attacks.
Takeaways from a Workshop on Climate and Respiratory Health
October 30th – Following participation at the USAsthma Summit and the ACAAI Annual Meeting last week, the urgent need for DailyBreath is apparent. Even though this time of the year is not the busiest season for allergies, getting DailyBreath out to allergy and asthma sufferers now will allow them to kick the tires as it were.
