Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana delivers 10 units to wildfire smoke-plagued Florence-Carlton Schools
As wildfire smoke continues to envelop much of western Montana and students are officially back in school, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana’s Care Van® Program on Tuesday provided air purifiers to schools in need.
The Florence-Carlton School District is among the hardest hit because of ongoing wildfires in the nearby Bitterroot Mountains. The 10 Honeywell QuietCare True HEPA air filtration units will provide clean air to especially vulnerable children with asthma. The new units will be placed in two classrooms, while also designating the library as a “clean space” by using an additional four units. The remaining two purifiers will be available to provide needed relief elsewhere.
“We hope these air purifiers offer some relief for students, parents and educators,” said Jesse Zentz, BCBSMT’s Community Relations Manager. “We often say children are the foundation of Montana’s future, and we’re here to help ensure Florence-Carlton can continue to provide its students with a safe and healthy place to learn.”
According to the American Lung Association (ALA), which partnered with the BCBSMT Care Van program to provide the air purifiers, 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 in Florence with air quality listed regularly as unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy and very unhealthy. Many of the fires burning throughout Montana are expected to continue burning for several weeks.
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 doctor 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.