As communities across Montana continue to wrestle with wildfire smoke, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana (BCBSMT) has teamed up with the American Lung Association to provide air purifiers to 10 schools in need.
On Wednesday, BCBSMT’s Care Van – loaded with nearly 100 Honeywell QuietCare True HEPA air filtration units – set out with the ALA on a combined two-day, 600-mile journey to deliver purifiers to schools in 10 communities: Plains, Thompson Falls, Trout Creek, Noxon, Troy, Libby, Eureka, West Glacier, Arlee and Lincoln. In total, officials will deliver 150 units, which were purchased with $10,000 from BCBSMT’s disaster relief fund and an additional $5,000 from the ALA.
“We hope these air purifiers offer relief for students, parents and educators,” said Jesse Zentz, BCBSMT’s Community Relations Manager. “These children are the foundation of Montana’s future, and these air purifiers will go a long way toward ensuring students have a safe and healthy place to learn.”
The Florence-Carlton School District – among the hardest hit because of ongoing wildfires in the nearby Bitterroot Mountains – received 10 of the air purifiers from the Care Van on September 5.
“These students can’t catch a break with the air quality, so we are thrilled to provide them with a clean space where they can breathe easy,” said Marcy Ballman, the Montana Health Services Manager for the ALA, “Kids shouldn’t have to worry about the air they breathe, especially while they’re in school. Hopefully now they can relax and focus on learning.”
According to the ALA, children face special risks from air pollution because they are active, and their lungs are still growing. The lungs and alveoli -- tiny air sacs where the transfer of oxygen to the blood takes place – aren’t fully grown until children become adults. On top of that, the body’s natural defenses that help fight off infections are still developing in young bodies. And children generally have more respiratory infections than adults, increasing susceptibility to air pollution.
These dangers have been especially prevalent in recent weeks throughout northwestern Montana with air quality listed regularly as unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy, very unhealthy and even hazardous. Many of the fires throughout Montana are expected to continue burning for several weeks and won’t be fully extinguished until a season-ending weather event.
The BCBSMT Care Van is a community partnership and outreach program that provides vaccines and other services to Montanans, with an emphasis on underserved populations. Care Van teams up with community health officials to administer vaccines at no cost, or low cost, to patients. The program brings services to Montana's rural and underserved areas, as well as centralized locations in populated areas. Providing air purifiers is part of an effort to expand the Care Van’s services throughout Montana.
BCBSMT and the ALA also partner throughout the year via the Enhancing Care for Children with Asthma program, which aims to help improve pediatric asthma care for high-risk patients through community-based interventions at primary care health centers, including physician offices, Federally Qualified Health Centers and school-based clinics. The program is part of BCBSMT’s Healthy Kids, Healthy Families® initiative, a community investment program committed to the health and well-being of children and families across Montana.