He’s red with spikey fur, smokes, carries a teddy bear and wears a flower on his head. If you have asthma he’s your nemesis, Mr Trigger.Mr Trigger is one of the adorable and amusing characters in a new booklet ‘Action Asthma’ put out by the asthma education charity Open Airways. The book is designed to educate children and parents about asthma in a fun and exciting way. It was designed by local graphic designer Andrea Lopes of Zac Designs.“There are lots and lots of books on the market about asthma,” said Liz Boden of Open Airways. “Most of them are written by the drug companies.“They want to sell their drugs. I wanted it to be completely neutral and I wanted it to be Bermudian. I found a small children’s book on asthma that came from an asthma charity in England.“It was really good but it was dreary. There was also massive amounts of text to read. If you read this to your child at night it would take way too long.”Open Airways already provided a book about asthma, but it was a bit too wordy for young children. The charity consulted with Ms Lopes and she suggested a super hero theme.“We wanted the main theme of it to be, ‘you are not the only one with asthma’,” said Mrs Boden. “One in five children in Bermuda have it. That is huge. In the United States it is one in ten children.“I think it is genetics. We live in a small community and we have that gene going around. The weather may also be a contributing factor.”Three thousand children on the Island are thought to have asthma. It appears to be more prevalent among black children than white children.One purpose of the book is to reassure children with asthma that they are not the only one who has it.Mrs Boden she said she knew of one child who had been teased on the playground because of his asthma and allergies. The other children refused to play with him fearing they would catch it. You can’t catch asthma and allergies from someone else.“We are trying to use the words ‘sensitive airways’ rather than asthma,” said Mrs Boden. “What we say in the schools is, ‘the goal is control’. You can do anything, but you have to take control.”The hero of the book is ‘Action Asthma’ a muscular, caped fellow with the letter ‘A’ on the front of his body suit. The main villain in the book is ‘Mr Trigger’, a cute embodiment of some of the not-so-cute things that can trigger an asthma attack such as mildew, pollen and dust.“It is very important to make people realise there are masses of triggers that affect your airways,” said Mrs Boden. “You will never be able to avoid them all. People call us and say ‘could you give us some advice. We have taken up all the carpets in the house, we have bought $1,000 air purifiers. The child has no curtains and no stuffed animals, but still has asthma’. Unfortunately, the world is full of asthma triggers or irritants, and you can never remove them all.”Mrs Boden said there were plans in the works to create Action Asthma and Mr Trigger mascots to help educate children in school.‘Action Asthma’ includes important information such as how to recognise when your asthma is getting worse. Signs include coughing and wheezing at night, and chest tightness.“That tells you to take your blue pump,” said Mrs Boden. “When this happens the child should tell an adult; that is important. It also tells how to recognise a severe attack. There are signs like you can’t run and play because of your asthma, you can’t sleep, your lips may be going blue, you may not be able to speak in full sentences.”She hoped that the book would help clear up confusion over things like which inhaler to use. The blue one is the rescue inhaler meant to be used in an emergency. The orange one is meant to be used every morning and evening as a preventative measure. It coats the airways and makes them less sensitive to irritants.“You should never leave home without your blue one,” said Mrs Boden, who herself has asthma. “A lot of children don’t use their preventative inhalers every day and they wait until they have an asthma attack to use anything.”Some children who have asthma at a very young age, outgrow it. It usually doesn’t settle in, until children are school age.Mrs Boden said one good thing is that Bermuda keeps very accurate statistics about asthma in the community. Jennifer Wilson, a school nurse who works for the Department of Health, visits all schools regularly to talk with the children about asthma. She collects statistics about asthma in the school system.Mrs Boden said so far the book was proving popular not just with young people, but also adults because it had less text to read.‘Action Asthma’ was sponsored by the Continental Society of Bermuda.“It is really nice when you get two charities working together, particularly now with the current economic system,” said Mrs Boden.For more information telephone 232-0264 or e-mail lizboden[AT]openairways.com.Useful website: www.openairways.com/open_airways_home.html.