HOLYOKE — Julio Rodriguez, 68, developed asthma about seven years ago.
His medication helps and so do changes made last year to his apartment in the Flats neighborhood, where he’s lived for 24 years.
Last summer, the Revitalize Community Development Corp. provided him with supplies to ease his asthma, like an air conditioner, an air purifier and a dehumidifier, said Aneida Molina Flores, assistant manager of the agency’s Healthy Homes program.
It’s made a difference, Rodriguez said, speaking in Spanish while Flores translated. “He doesn’t want to tear up, but he’s very grateful,” Flores said.
Fewer people like Rodriguez will be able to get that help. Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency terminated a $1 million grant the state was using to work with Revitalize CDC to reduce asthma by improving indoor air quality in Springfield, Chicopee and Holyoke.
Those missing out on the funding include Rodriguez’s two daughters and some of his grandchildren, who also have asthma and live nearby. They were on the waiting list for the EPA funded-program before the grant was cut.
“It’s devastating,” Colleen Shanley-Loveless, president and CEO of Revitalize CDC, said of the grant loss. “The need is overwhelming.”
The Springfield area has the second-highest asthma prevalence rate in the country, according to a 2024 report from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
The report used the Springfield metropolitan statistical area, which includes Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties. But the issue is particularly severe in Hampden County. In 2021, the most recent data available, the number of people who sought emergency room care in Holyoke because of asthma was nearly four times the state average. Springfield’s rate was three times the average and Chicopee’s about double.
Asthma causes the airways to narrow and swell. “The way I explain asthma to patients is it’s an issue with inflammation in the airways,” said Dr. Carolyn Garcia, a pulmonologist at Baystate Health. It can cause breathing difficulty and wheezing and can be fatal. It affects both kids and adults.
The $1 million grant for the Revitalize CDC program is not the only asthma-related funding the Trump administration has halted. The EPA recently terminated a $20 million grant to Springfield that was set to fund a variety of green programs, including those that would address asthma, like increased air sensors in the city.
“It’s taking all this work that’s taken us decades of collective community cooperative work and flushing it down the toilet,” said Dr. Matthew Sadof, a pediatrician at Baystate Health who has been fighting asthma in the Valley for nearly 30 years.
“This is going to result in people — children and adults — being in the hospital for asthma and people are going to die,“ Sadof said. ”Asthma can be a fatal disease if not well managed.”
State Sen. Adam Gómez is worried the federal government’s grant terminations could roll back progress the area has made on asthma. “Do we become the asthma capital again because of the walk back of 20 plus million dollars? It’s very frustrating what the Trump administration is doing,” he said.
Several factors drive high asthma rates in and around Springfield, experts say. Outdoor air quality, worsened by the freeway cutting through downtown Springfield, is one factor. The geography of the Valley also traps polluted air.
The area also has old housing stock, which contributes to poor indoor air quality, particularly if maintenance is deferred. In Springfield, 83% of homes were built before 1978, according to state data. Older homes are more likely to have asthma triggers like poor ventilation, mold and old carpeting that traps dust and allergens.
There’s long been work underway to address the problem. The Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts convenes the Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition and has been working to create a network of air sensors that puts real-time air quality data online. The lost EPA grant funding to Springfield would have expanded that network.
A researcher at Yale University is using the network data to better understand the chemistry and possible source of air pollution.
Interstate 91 cuts through the North End of Springfield. The pollution the traffic produces is considered to be one cause of high asthma rates in the city. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)
What’s driving high rates?
In 2018 and 2019, the Greater Springfield area was named the asthma capital of the country by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, which takes into account prevalence rates, emergency room visits and fatalities. Then the region dropped in the annual rankings, but rose to fourth in 2024, the most recent report says.
Pediatric asthma rates are elevated— about 15% of kids in Springfield and Chicopee and nearly 17% in Holyoke have asthma, state data show. The state average is 10%.
Jada Serrano, 9, suffers from asthma and lives roughly 200 yards from the Interstate 91 highway that cuts through her neighborhood in Springfield. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)
There’s no statistical difference in adult asthma rates by race or ethnicity. But there are stark racial disparities in the outcomes, according to the state’s current strategic asthma plan. Between 2016 and 2019, Black residents of Hampden County went to the ER for asthma at twice the rate of white residents, according to data analyzed by Baystate Medical Center.
There’s thought to be several reasons behind the high asthma rate.
“Asthma is a medically and societally complex problem,” Sadof said. It’s caused by a combination of genetic predisposition and exposure to triggers, Garcia said.
Air quality is one driver. “We have a big highway running through the city. We have a lot of manufacturing that produces pollutants,” Sadof said. Even if facilities follow federal pollution guidelines, it can add up. “Everything is going into the same bowl of soup,” he said.
When the interstate highway system was developed in the ’50s and ’60s, the I-91 and I-291 interchange was built in the North End through one of the city’s two predominantly Black census tracts, according to a 2024 report from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.
Air quality in areas around the interstate is worse and there’s an uptick in particulate matter during rush hour, said Krystal Pollitt, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale University School of Public Health. “There is most definitely a traffic contribution,” she said.
Francheska Bermudez, 413Cares Program Coordinator for the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, checks a junction box for an air quality monitoring station located outside the Springfield Science Museum last fall. (Don Treeger / The Republican)
Pollitt is studying data collected in the Valley through the Healthy Air Network. In response to Springfield being named the asthma capital of the country, the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts set up the network in 2021. Every two minutes, 24 hours a day, the sensors collect data and provide it in real-time to people online to better understand the air quality in their neighborhoods.
The sensors measure fine particulate matter — which can get into lungs and cause health issues. But they don’t measure the chemistry of those particles, which would provide clues to their emitting sources. So Pollitt and her team put up specialized sensors at sites in the Valley and look at the chemical composition of the particulate matter.
The network is seeking people to host sensors, which need a Wi-Fi connection and use a low amount of power. In particular, there are gaps in coverage they want to fill in West Springfield, Agawam and Palmer, Pollitt said.
Some of the lost EPA money would have gone toward expanding the network. “EPA funding over the past couple years was essential to building this,” Pollitt said. “It comes as a blow that we’ve lost funding.”
The data shows bright spots. The 2022 closing of both a West Springfield coal-fired power plant and a trash incinerator at Bondi’s Island in Agawam made a difference in air quality, said Sarita Hudson, senior director of strategy and development at the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts.
In general, air quality is acceptable under EPA standards in the area, she and Pollitt said. “But when you have a population that is already vulnerable,” Hudson said, “it’s the cumulative impacts. This is exactly why biomass was a bad idea.”
Demonstrators stood outside the Western Massachusetts office of former Gov. Charlie Baker in Springfield in 2021 to demand an end to the long-proposed biomass energy plant in East Springfield. (The Republican / file photo)
For years, community and environmental groups have fought a proposed wood-burning biomass power plant. The project appeared defeated, but then in early May, a state appeals court ruled that Palmer Renewable Energy’s permit was still valid. Construction is far from imminent: Opponents can appeal, and the project still needs other permits, including a state-issued air quality permit.
Indoor air quality
Dr. Matthew D. Sadof, a pediatrician, has treated many children with asthma and has over 40 years of experience in the medical field. He said there are many reasons children in Hampden County are suffering from asthma, ranging from exhaust fumes to pollen. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)
On one of his first days on the job at Baystate in the 1990s, Sadof cared for a child struggling with asthma who had to be taken to the emergency room and intubated. “That’s how bad it can get,” he said.
Once the patient was stable, Sadof remembers speaking to the child’s mother. “I see she had a hospital bracelet on. … She goes, ‘My asthma is just terrible.’ I said, ‘Tell me about where you live.’ She described a home with carpeting. The apartment building had a lot of cockroaches and mice. All these things are potent triggers for asthma.”
“You can give all the asthma medicine in the world to someone like that but they will have poorly controlled asthma,” he said.
Sometimes people don’t have the resources to move or address those triggers. In medical school, Sadof remembers hearing that to cure tuberculosis, you need to cure poverty. “I think the same thing goes with asthma … poverty makes it worse, a lot worse.”
Under a federal grant from the Obama administration, organizations like the Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition worked for years on a program that went into the homes of people with asthma to remove triggers, Sadof said.
“If people go home to a home that has mold and dust and poor ventilation, then medicine is not the answer,” said Hudson, of the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts. “It’s getting at the root causes of what’s in their home.”
Legislation would focus on that issue. Gómez, the state senator, has filed a bill that would create a state task force to address indoor air pollution in places like schools, long-term care facilities and residential housing.
Gómez hears concerns about asthma from his constituents, and said he has family members with the condition.
Dr. Matthew D. Sadof of Baystate Health says one trigger of an asthma attack can be heavy amounts of pollen in the air certain times of year. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)
Arise for Social Justice, a Springfield community organization, has created pamphlets for tenants, landlords and homeowners on how to address mold, which can trigger asthma. “We’re seeing mold — so much mold in so many homes,” said Rusty Polsgrove, associate director and environmental justice organizer at Arise.
Arise staff had been talking with the EPA about collaborating on the pamphlets. “That’s been halted since Trump’s inauguration,” Polsgrove said.
Polsgrove talks to a lot of people who think mold in their home is their fault for not cleaning better. The stigma can stop them from getting help. “People feel a lot of shame around that,” they said.
But if there’s a leak in the house, cleaning well won’t prevent mold, they said. A lot of people don’t have the resources to remove the mold or move out, so Arise has given out air purifiers in the past to help.
The $1 million grant to the state that the EPA recently canceled would have supported Revitalize CDC in removing asthma triggers, like mold, in Springfield, Chicopee and Holyoke homes.
When asked to comment on the grant cancellation, an EPA spokesperson said: “Maybe the Biden-Harris Administration shouldn’t have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and preferencing on the EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment. Partisan actors can spin this grant cancellation in any which way they choose, this is an ‘environmental and climate justice’ grant, not about asthma.”
A signed grant agreement from 2024 says the project targets asthma.
Nereida Badillo of Holyoke stands under mold forming on the ceiling of one of her son’s rooms. The group Revitalize CDC has helped her address mold in her bathroom, but funding is not able to cover costs with mold removal from bedrooms and the basement. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)
In addition, the $20 million EPA grant to the city of Springfield had been in limbo since soon after Trump’s January inauguration. Last week the EPA officially terminated it. Announced last year, it would have fueled a variety of environmental programs in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the city.
Some were related to improving air quality and reducing asthma, like increasing sensors in the Healthy Air Network, and repairing homes to eliminate asthma triggers, said Tina Quagliato Sullivan, the city’s deputy development officer for housing, community development and neighborhoods.
“Addressing asthma comes up in community meetings,” said Gerry McCafferty, the city’s housing director. “It’s a thing we hear all the time.’’
Another initiative under the grant was work on the West Street corridor in Springfield’s Brightwood neighborhood to decrease congestion, McCafferty said. Air sensors would have measured how the changes impacted air quality.
“The objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities,” an April 30 letter to the city reads. “As with any change in administration,” an EPA spokesperson said, “the agency is reviewing each grant program to ensure it is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars and to understand how those programs align with administration priorities.”
The state was disappointed by the news. “For a long time, folks in Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee have been really engaged partners in the efforts we’ve been trying to advance in Massachusetts to support folks with asthma,” said Erica Marshall, director of the Division of Community-based Prevention and Care at the state Department of Public Health.
“It is really challenging and unfortunate to see so much opportunity and progress being halted at the moment,” she said.
Life with asthma
Polsgrove, who works at Arise for Social Justice, has asthma. “I didn’t develop asthma until I was an adult living in the Pioneer Valley,” they said. They have lived in areas all over the city, from McKnight to Boston Road, and when they lived further from the highway near Wilbraham, their asthma was better than when living downtown near the highway.
For Nereida Badillo, asthma means it’s hard to keep up with her three kids. “I can’t chase my poor 8 year old,” she said.
A lifelong Holyoke resident, she was diagnosed with asthma 15 years ago, she said. She’s gotten help at her home from Revitalize CDC to improve the indoor air quality, but there’s mold in the room one of her sons sleeps in. The home is more than a century old, and she didn’t realize it had a leaky roof and mold when she bought it two years ago.
Celena Smith, 42, has had asthma for most of her life. As a preteen, she was living in Springfield when she developed bronchitis and her left lung partially collapsed.
As an adult, she keeps her inhaler close. In the summer, she sometimes uses it multiple times a day. “Even if you have controlled asthma it can always be triggered,” she said. “We don’t have the best quality air.”
When Smith took a trip to South Carolina a few years ago, she assumed the air quality would be worse, but she was wrong. “Whatever is here is not there,” she said.
On a recent morning, she was late for her job at a car dealership in Springfield because she forgot her inhaler at home in Chicopee and went back for it.
Sometimes people without asthma brush the condition off, she said. “I don’t know if people understand how serious it really is,” she said. “It’s the scariest thing in the world when you can’t breathe.”
Julio Rodriguez holds the emergency inhaler he keeps with him to treat asthma when he leaves his home. Living on the third floor of a building makes it difficult for Rodriguez to leave. He often has a neighbor run errands and collect his groceries. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)
Like Smith, Rodriguez carries his rescue inhaler with him. He also uses a nebulizer and a daily inhaler that delivers preventative medication.
He remembered a time at church when he suffered an attack but didn’t have his rescue inhaler. He had to rush home and go up several flights of stairs to get it.
The condition for him varies based on the season, worsening in the heat. He lived in Puerto Rico until moving to Holyoke more than 20 years ago, where he has always lived in the Flats neighborhood. He’s not sure why he developed the condition — he used to smoke, he said but quit long before he was diagnosed with asthma.
Flores, the assistant manager of Revitalize CDC’s Healthy Homes program, is disappointed to not be able to help Rodriguez’s daughters because the EPA grant was cut.
“It’s sad to see that it’s affecting families and generations,” Flores said of asthma, as she sat in Rodriguez’s living room. “We are trying to do what we can with what we have.”
