The American Lung Association®, can give you at least 24 million reasons why we need to Blow the Whistle on Asthma and how you can help fight the asthma epidemic. 24 million is the estimated number of Americans who suffer from Asthma. You probably know someone who suffers from this chronic disease. It could be a family member, a young child, a co-worker, a neighbor or maybe even you. Asthma isn't always obvious; you can't always tell an Asthma sufferer from looking at them. Though you cannot always see asthma, you can see and count its devastating effects. Asthma is responsible for more lost school days by children than any other chronic disease. Even more frightening is the 55% increase in the death rate from asthma over the last 20 years. The economic cost of asthma is unbelievable ? over $12 billion dollars is spent annually to keep asthma and its potentially deadly affects under control. Asthma Walk is a nation wide effort to bring attention to this devastating chronic illness. We know a lot about asthma, but there is so much we don't know. Your participation will raise the funds necessary to provide education and research so we can better control asthma and soon find a cure.