Breathe Easy NYC
Housing
Housing has a direct impact on the health of families living inside. Inadequate ventilation, moisture, and pest infestations create environments where asthma triggers thrive. Unfortunately, children in lower-income communities often face these challenges more than others. Living in these conditions, especially as a child, increases the likelihood of developing asthma over time. This is especially true of children who are often exposed to smokers, as the secondhand smoke irritates their airways. These harmful conditions make it harder to manage asthma, leading to more frequent attacks and a reduced quality of life. Ensuring safe, healthy homes is essential for preventing asthma exacerbations and promoting long-term well-being.
Healthcare
For many children with asthma, access to quality healthcare is crucial for managing their condition. Without regular doctor visits, proper medications, or asthma education, it’s much harder to control symptoms and avoid attacks. Unfortunately, families with limited healthcare access, often in low-income or under-resourced areas, may face more frequent asthma flare-ups and complications because of this. Without the right resources, children cannot receive the ongoing care they need. Ensuring that everyone has access to affordable, reliable healthcare is key to helping pediatric asthma patients stay healthy and live their lives to the fullest.
Air Quality
Poor air quality plays a major role in worsening asthma, and it is a problem that disproportionately affects low-income neighborhoods. These communities are often located near sources of high pollution like factories, highways, or waste sites, which release harmful particles into the air. Limited access to green spaces and more traffic congestion also contribute to low air quality. For children with asthma, this means more frequent attacks and difficulty breathing. Kids should feel safe playing outside without the worry that the air they breathe is harming them. Addressing air pollution and improving environmental conditions in these neighborhoods is crucial for reducing asthma risks and creating healthier, safer communities for everyone.
Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people live, work, and grow. These factors have a major impact on public health, especially in communities facing systemic inequities. When it comes to asthma, housing, healthcare, and air quality have the biggest effect.
Social Determinants of Asthma
Our Mission
At Breathe Easy NYC, our mission is to combat the social determinants of asthma in New York City by providing education, resources, and advocacy to underserved communities. Through targeted seminars, health drives, and policy reform initiatives, we aim to reduce asthma-related health disparities, improve air quality, and increase access to medical care for those most affected.
Asthma is a significant public health issue in NYC, disproportionately affecting low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Nearly 20% of children in New York City have been diagnosed with asthma, with asthma-related hospitalizations in these communities being twice as high as in wealthier areas. Our organization strives to address the root causes of asthma by focusing on environmental hazards, access to healthcare, and the socio-economic factors that contribute to the severity of the disease.
By raising awareness, empowering individuals, and influencing policies, we work to ensure that all New Yorkers—regardless of race, income, or neighborhood—have the opportunity to breathe easy.
Our Founder
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Calleigh Turchyn became committed to health justice after recognizing that saving lives doesn’t just happen in the hospital. She has always had a passion for medicine and was interested in science from a young age. Her love for the subject is exemplified by her commitment to learn through classes, research, and volunteer experience. Feeling a need to make an impact, she decided that her future was in medicine because it combined the two things most important to her: science and service.
After volunteering at a non-profit clinic serving children in Costa Rica, Calleigh came to understand the immense impact socioeconomic status has on health. On returning home to New York City, she was disturbed to realize that the same was true there: especially when it came to children and asthma. Despite being one of the wealthiest cities in the world, NYC has one of the highest rates of asthma hospitalizations in the country. Treatments and diagnoses are only half the battle. There are so many social factors that play a role in the health of tons of communities around the city.
Without addressing this issue, Calleigh felt she could not fulfill her commitment to medicine. With Breathe Easy NYC, Calleigh hopes to ease the burden and symptoms of having asthma when growing up in an under-resourced community. She believes that every child deserves to breathe easy.