This month is National Asthma Awareness Month, when we address an illness that affects nearly 25 million Americans and one in every ten children in the United States.

Safeguarding the air we breathe and preventing illnesses like asthma attacks is one of my most important jobs as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But it is important to me for other reasons as well - before I am Administrator, or an environmentalist, I am a mother of two teenage sons whose health, happiness and future are my and my husband’s top concerns. Over the years, my youngest son has struggled with asthma, giving my work for clean air an added urgency.

In some cases, raising a child with asthma means startling awake at night because of the lightest sound of a cough. In other cases, it means family trips with a nebulizer, breathing masks and asthma medication. But in every case, it means taking special care to monitor the environmental conditions that might trigger an attack.

National Asthma Awareness Month is an important opportunity to raise awareness about those triggers and ensure that everyone has the knowledge they need to help control asthma. The EPA has assembled a number of great resources on our website, www.epa.gov/asthma. I’ve also recorded a short video about Asthma Awareness Month. I hope you’ll watch it, share it, and help us get the word out about asthma awareness.

This National Asthma Awareness Month, we need your help to make sure everyone knows what they can do to help prevent and protect against asthma.