Prompted by Maine’s highest-in-the-nation rate of adult asthma, the American Lung Association of Maine this week launched an information campaign to educate the general public, as well as affected individuals and their caregivers, about the condition.

In the past 20 years, the number of Mainers with asthma has more than doubled. Now at almost 9 percent, Maine has the highest rate of adult asthma in the United States.

Asthma. The word itself has a kind of wheezy, constricted sound. It’s derived from the Greek work for “blow.” That’s ironic, because if there’s one thing asthma sufferers can’t do easily, it’s blowing. Another thing they can’t do very well is breathing in.

During an asthma attack, airways become narrow and inflamed, making every breath in and out a struggle. A severe episode – triggered by a chance encounter with smoke, mold, food, household dust, heat, cold or any one of myriad known and unknown irritants – can result in death.

For 100,000 Maine residents – 20,000 of them children – asthma is a way of life, a constant, oppressive presence in their day-to-day activities.

The American Lung Association of Maine’s “Go Ahead” campaign announcements will air for the next seven weeks on local radio stations, and there’s also a jazzy new Web site.

Bangor physician Paul Shapero has spent his career treating adults and children with asthma and allergies. Although the disease is not well-understood, he said, some people are genetically predisposed to develop it. Environmental factors just make it worse.

Shapero says Maine’s position as the “exhaust pipe” for industrial emissions coming from manufacturing and generating plants in the Midwest is responsible for some of the increase in asthma cases.

But, he said, in many ways asthma can be considered a “lifestyle disease.”

“More and more Mainers are living in modular and mobile homes with wall-to-wall carpets and forced hot-air heat,” he said – a fertile environment for dust and mold, with a built-in fan to blow it around.

Newer homes pose a different problem, with tighter construction methods blocking out fresh air, he said.

Shapero also blames Maine’s older, flat-roofed schools and their associated mold and mildew problems, as well as the state’s depressed economy.

“Stress issues can really trigger asthma,” he said. Cigarette smoke, including secondhand smoke, is another major irritant, said Shapero.

Shapero said there’s growing evidence to suggest many of Maine’s children labeled with attention deficit and other disorders may really be suffering from undiagnosed asthma and allergies.

As part of the “Go Ahead” campaign, ALAM will provide a free “action kit” – a treatment plan that patients, with the help of their doctors, can use – a wallet-sized reference card to help patients respond appropriately to changes in their breathing, and a handy black nylon pouch to carry their medicated inhalers.

For more information on asthma in Maine and the activities of ALAM, log on to www.goaheadmaine.org or call 1-800-499-5864.