Asthma Rates by State

Just finished going through this PDF from the Center for Disease Control. As I have written in the past, there is no correlation between asthma and high ozone areas, despite what the EPA and the American Lung Association like to think. Check out this study from 2007:

Adult Self-Reported Lifetime Asthma Prevalence Rate (Percent)
and Prevalence (Number) by Race and State or Territory: BRFSS 2007

Some states like Idaho (13.3%), Rhode Island (14.5%) and New Hampshire (14.9%), which have very low ozone, have above average asthma rates (based on whites, which have highest sampling data). High ozone states like California came in at 12.9%, Texas:13.8%, Ohio:12.7% and PA: 12.1%. USA average is 12.8%.

Even more striking is this report from the American Lung Association from 2009. Go down to the cities section (starting on page 24) and look at some well known high ozone cities like Houston, Los Angeles, etc and compare their asthma rates with smaller cities, never known for high ozone.

Trends in Asthma Morbidity and Mortality