But ‘non-smoking’ did not really mean ‘non-smoking,’ and ‘Brooke ended up in the emergency room for the first time since she was 7,’ says Sander, founder of Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics in Fairfax, Va. It was just what parents of new students with asthma fear: For a lifetime, they’ve monitored medications, made doctors’ appointments and provided homes where the allergens and irritants that can set off symptoms are kept to a minimum….

The combination of new freedoms and unhealthful conditions can be ‘incendiary,’ says Richard Gower, president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and a professor of medicine at the University of Washington, Spokane.”