Federal Asthma Disparities Action Plan

On May 31, 2010, the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children (“Task Force”) released the Coordinated Federal Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Asthma Disparities (“Action Plan”). In general, the Action Plan calls on federal agencies to synergize their actions by coordinating federal programs and partnerships to reduce asthma disparities.

Specifically, the Action Plan provides an outline for federal action over the next 3 to 5 years to combat asthma in the following strategic categories: (1) Reduce barriers to the implementation of guidelines-based asthma management; (2) Enhance capacity to deliver integrated, comprehensive asthma care to children in communities with racial and ethnic disparities; (3) Improve capacity to identify the children most impacted by asthma disparities; (4) Accelerate efforts to identify and test interventions that may prevent the onset of asthma among ethnic and racial minority children. Please refer to the attached document for further details.

The Asthma Disparities Working Group, which is part of the Task Force, will oversee and support the progress of each of the strategies in the plan. The progress that federal agencies have made on the Action Plan’s implementation will be documented semiannually and made public.