California Breathing is dedicated to improving the lives of people with asthma in California by leading the
implementation of the Strategic Plan for Asthma in California (the Plan). California Breathing is housed in the
California Department of Public Health’s Environmental Health Investigations Branch. Consistent with the priorities
of the branch, California Breathing focuses on disease surveillance, increasing capacity of a broad
network of partners to achieve goals in the Plan, and developing interventions that improve environmental
conditions that cause or exacerbate asthma in the most vulnerable populations.

 

California Breathing, along with the other CDPH asthma programs, won the EPA’s 2009 Environmental Leadership
Award in Asthma Management. The EPA acknowledged the CDPH programs for their leadership in addressing environmental
triggers and coordination of community services as part of comprehensive management of asthma. Over the
last eight years, California Breathing and its partners have achieved major accomplishments in our collective
efforts to advance the current and previous Strategic Plan for Asthma in California. The accomplishments
reflect California Breathing’s socio-ecologic approach to reducing the burden of asthma, spanning across
individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy levels. Many of the accomplishments focus
on the environment, which mirrors California Breathing’s strong belief in primary prevention and “upstream”
approaches to reducing the burden of asthma.