Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition

The Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition (PVAC) is a coalition convened by the Public Health Institute of Western MA consisting of health professionals and institutions, community groups and residents, public health organizations, municipal and state agencies, academic institutions, schools, daycare, housing and environmental groups committed to improving asthma and environmental conditions that affect health in Western Massachusetts. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for families, individuals, and communities affected by asthma in the Pioneer Valley. The Steering Committee includes representatives from health care, academics, and community groups provides leadership on advocacy and programming.

For over 20 years the Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition has led initiatives to address the high rates of asthma in the region.  In the past, we have focused on indoor air quality in schools and homes as well as outdoor air quality.

Our current initiatives:

• Healthy Air Network: The Healthy Air Network measures neighborhood-level air quality in Massachusetts. Our goal is to understand how air quality impacts health conditions like asthma.
• Healthy Homes: We are working with the DPH Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention program and the DPH Asthma program to promote healthy homes practices and resources in the region. In addition, as part of the Green & Resilient Springfield initiative funded by the EPA Community Change Grant, we will promote healthy homes rehabilitation and energy retrofits in Springfield
• Healthy Schools: We are working with Health Resources in Action on the HEAL project working on school environments, health and academic achievement.

 For more information, please visit Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition.

Springfield Asthma Rates continue to Improve

Improving in Air Quality and Asthma Outcomes, More Work to be Done

After 2 years as #1 asthma capital, the impact of living with asthma in the Greater Springfield /Hampden county area has improved, with Springfield now at #46 in the rankings set by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. This designation is based on asthma prevalence, mortality, and emergency room use for asthma. This improvement coincides with the Springfield Healthy Homes Asthma program and other community health worker asthma interventions in the region, schools interventions and  and with an improvement in air quality as reported by the American Lung Association's State of the Air report.

Although still a serious problem that affects many families and communities in our region, this improvement shows that the work to improve asthma outcomes is having an impact. This is good news for our local families and communities! However, there are still questions to be answered about addressing the causes of asthma onset and asthma flare-ups. 

Our Healthy Air Network project in collaboration with the cities of Springfield and Holyoke and other partners is collecting data from 55 sites in Springfield, Holyoke, and Chicopee to identify hot spots for poor air quality. The loss of the permit for the proposed biomass plant in Springfield is a win for environmental justice, air quality, and families with asthma. As we see improvements, we must be vigilant to prevent any additional sources of pollution that can impact the vulnerable communities in the region.

Asthma community health worker and healthy homes interventions are being embedded in local health care—including Revitalize CDC’s collaborations with the BeHealthy Partnership’s Flex Services asthma supplies intervention and Holyoke Medical Center’s asthma community health worker/healthy homes intervention. We have to continue to find ways to embed these services and make them standard procedures for people with asthma.

Our work with the Springfield Healthy Homes Asthma Program funded by the Shift Health Policy Commission grant has also identified policy actions needed to address the challenges renters face in dealing with poor housing conditions in a landscape of older housing stock, widespread deferred maintenance, lack of affordable housing and fear of eviction records.

Let’s keep working to improve the quality of life for people and communities with asthma.