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Language barriers, poor air quality and a lack of access to quality health care have contributed to an asthma crisis among California Latinos, according to a report released Monday by San Francisco-based Latino Issues Forum. 

“The cases are rising to an epidemic level in California,” said Raquel Donoso, senior program manager at the Issues Forum. 

Berkeley Latinos, however, may be faring better than the statewide community, according to the latest figures compiled by the city. 

According to statewide data from the California Department of Health Services, Latinos were hospitalized for asthma at a rate of 106 per 100,000 between 1995 and 1997, compared to 100 for non-Hispanic whites and 355 for African-Americans, who had the highest rates.  

In Alameda County the overall numbers were similar. But for children 14 and under, hospitalization rates were considerably higher than the statewide average. Among Latinos for instance, 265 per 100,000 were hospitalized for asthma, compared to 183 statewide. 

According to 1999 data compiled by the city, 89 children ages one to 19 were hospitalized for asthma. Forty-nine were African-American, 22 were white, eight were Asian, six were “other,” and only three were Latino. 

Dr. Jose Ducos, medical epidemiologist for the city, said there is no cut and dry explanation for the disparity in Berkeley and county-wide figures. But he noted that the Latino population is comparatively small in Berkeley, composing about 10 percent of the total. 

Ducos added that, according to several medical indicators, Berkeley’s Latino population is relatively healthy. He suggested that low asthma hospitalization rates may reflect that overall health. 

But Ducos and other health care professionals in the area warned that hospitalization figures are an inexact measure. Good preventative care in a given area might prevent hospitalization, a lack of health insurance may keep certain populations away from long-term care and, most important, hospitalization figures reflect only the worst cases, they said. 

Ducos is working on a city-wide mail survey, scheduled to be completed this summer, that will give officials a better idea for the prevalence of asthma and other chronic diseases. 

Medical research on the causes of asthma is inconclusive, but doctors say that dust, cigarette smoke and other pollutants act as triggers for asthma attacks.  

Dr. Sue Haverkamp, associate medical director for pediatrics at La Clinica de La Raza in Oakland, said many of her Latino patients suffer from asthma. 

She attributes the high incidence to socio-economic conditions, noting that low-income patients tend to live in overcrowded and unsanitary dwellings that produce dust, cockroach dander and other asthma triggers.  

According to Donoso, of the Issues Forum, two in three overcrowded households statewide are Latino.  

The Issues Forum report makes several recommendations for reaching out to this population. The Forum calls on the state to develop more Spanish-language asthma information, launch a statewide education campaign and provide money to hire more school nurses, among other things. 

The report also calls on local schools to provide more asthma information and train teachers on the basics. Next year, the Ethnic Health Institute at Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center in Berkeley will conduct public education on asthma in the Berkeley and Oakland schools. The Institute will also work in Berkeley and Oakland public housing.