Texts, Twitter could improve asthma alerts

Health-care professionals in Arizona are creating an asthma-alert system using popular social-networking Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace and #Twitter. The system, which also has a text-messaging component, would alert young people when particulate pollution in their neighborhoods reaches levels that could trigger an asthma attack. It would be the first of its kind in the nation and could be a lifesaver for some of the estimated 600,000 Arizona asthma sufferers. Particulate pollution is well-established as a trigger for asthma attacks, which cause 4,000 deaths a year in the United States and contribute to 7,000 more, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.