Clinic opens in Clairton to address pediatric asthma crisis

A new health center designed to treat the region’s growing number of children with asthma opened Tuesday in the industrial hub of Clairton.

The Cornerstone Care Community Health Center, a pilot project launched with the backing of the Allegheny County Medical Society, held a ribbon cutting ceremony and immediately welcomed patients and their families.

A recently released study shows that 22.4% of children in Clairton have asthma and are getting sick at a rate that is three times higher than the national average.

The study’s author, Dr. Deborah Gentile, is director of allergy and immunology at East Suburban Pediatrics and medical director of Allergy and Asthma Wellness Centers. Gentile, who will see patients at Clairton’s new clinic every other Tuesday, had an integral role in setting up the facility.

“There are approximately 27,000 children with asthma in Allegheny County,” Gentile said. “At least 6,500 of those children suffer from uncontrolled asthma, meaning they wake up every day knowing that they will have to fight just to breathe.”

Gentile said while many factors can trigger asthma, there was little doubt that U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works has exacerbated the problem. Earlier this year the Allegheny County Health Department fined U.S. Steel $360,000 for air pollution violations at the Clairton Works.

“In our particular study, we controlled for the fact that there are predominantly African-American children and poorer children participating. We know that both being African-American and poor actually do increase your risk of asthma,” Gentile said. “So, even when we controlled for those things, what really fell out environmental-wise was the pollution exposure, how close they were living to the facility and how high their levels of pollution exposure were.”

Gentile said she’s known that asthmatic children in Clairton have lacked needed access to specialists because of financial barriers that prevent their families from traveling or paying for treatment elsewhere.

“We come right to where they are so that they don’t have to worry about transportation,” Gentile said. “Bringing specialty asthma care right to where these underserved patients live will allow them to easily access care and gain control of their asthma.”

In the first year, the clinic anticipates treating 100 asthmatic children in Clairton, according to Dr. William K. Johnjulio, chairman of the Allegheny County Medical Society Foundation Board of Directors.

“If you look across our county, about a quarter of the kids with uncontrolled asthma have episodes where they struggle to breathe, and the majority of them are in areas where they have lack of access to proper care,” Johnjulio said. “We are renewing our commitment to the community. We will be looking for opportunities to grow the number of children served.”