Asthma is a chronic disease that is estimated to affect 1 of every 15 Americans or approximately 20 million Americans.1 In the year 1999, 2 million emergency room visits and 478,000 hospitalizations were attributed to asthma attacks, and, in the year 2000, 11 million Americans reported asthma attacks.2 In addition, there are more than 5000 annual deaths directly caused by asthma and another 7000 d