LEXINGTON - Kentucky students with asthma will be allowed to carry and use “rescue” inhalers to school this year, an exception to most school policies, thanks to a new state law.

        Some 70,000 Kentucky children suffer from asthma. Now, with the permission of their parent and doctor, they may carry and inhale breathing medication if needed. Most school policies require all medications to be stored and dispensed by trained school staff.

        Because many asthma attacks are triggered by exercise, it is especially important for children to have inhalers close at hand during recess, sports or other physical activity.

        “It's not good enough to be in the nurse's office,” said James W. Rogers of Temple University, who studied 61 sports-related asthma deaths among children and teens nationally from 1995 to 2000. “It's not good enough to have it in the locker if you're in the field, or for it to be in the coach's pocket, if you're running cross country and are two miles up the road.”

        Kentucky is among 11 states that have enacted such legislation since 1999.

        Asthma can cause life-threatening breathing difficulties and even kills two to three school-age Kentucky children each year.

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