BALTIMORE (Map, News) - It’s springtime in Baltimore: Orioles season opener, picnics, charity bike rides and struggling for every breath.

The return of warm weather also portends more trips to the hospital and emergency room, say Baltimore officials charged with helping residents breathe easier. Their battle is uphill, though, in a city ranked 11th out of 25 major metropolitan areas by the American Lung Association for both peak pollution levels and ozone smog.

“Between July and November, we see far more emergency room visits — about 70 percent more — than December through March,” said Dr. Anne Bailowitz, chief of the Baltimore City Health Department’s Bureau of Children’s Health. “Hospitalizations likewise increase about 63 percent.”

While the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” report focused on outdoor air quality, the air inside your home might be more critical for those with asthma, said Madeline Shae, Baltimore’s Healthy Homes director. “Indoor air is often far worse than outdoor air. ... In Baltimore it’s much more prevalent than other cities that people smoke inside their homes.”

Exposure of pregnant women to secondhand tobacco smoke has been linked to babies with low birth weight and to delayed development in children, according to an article published in the October issue of the journal Children’s Health. As many as one in five cases of childhood asthma has been aggravated by secondhand smoke.

Two years ago, the city Health Department began incorporating air quality education into its home lead testing program. Teams of inspectors look for possible asthma triggers and assess the health of occupants who may be dealing with asthma. They then suggest changes, like dust covers on beds, eliminating shag carpeting or smoking outside to help clear the air.

The city has installed a ground-level ozone detector in Northeast Baltimore, she said, and will publish information about air quality along with its Code Red heat advisory system.

khille@baltimoreexaminer.com