The Pleasant Grove 16-year-old has been a state gymnastics champion a handful of times. She hoped to compete in college.

But asthma took away her breath - she's lost 20 percent of her lung capacity - and her dream. She couldn't make it through routines and stopped going to the gym.

Webster's asthma is severe. It's triggered by changes in the barometric pressure. In other words, she gets sick before a storm hits and her attacks last weeks to months.

But last week's unsettled weather couldn't keep her from the Asthma Walk, which drew around 150 Utahns to Sugar House Park before rain showers moved in. Organizers had hoped to raise $75,000 for camp and school programs that help children with the chronic disease, but American Lung Association development director Don Hooper estimated the walk raised around $45,000.

"That's OK - now we have our goal for next year," Hooper said.

Missing out on outdoor fun is a burden Webster shares with other asthma sufferers. Air pollution also triggers her attacks, and during the winter inversions, she spends most of her time indoors. Ditto during Utah County's open burn season, which ends in mid-May, when residents can incinerate their household trash.

"I can't always do what I want to do," Webster said. "Every moment you're thankful you're alive and you can breathe."

Clear the air: Scrubbing the air clean isn't an asthma "cure," since it wouldn't help those whose chronic lung disease is triggered by allergies, second-hand smoke or cold air. But the newly created Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and other advocates are starting to focus on the state's air pollution, which not only aggravates asthma but impairs the lung function of all children.

If Utah's air doesn't improve - and it will likely deteriorate with car traffic projected to double in the next 20 years - doctors predict the state's asthma rate will get worse.

"We're certainly going to see more hospitalization rates," said Shellie Ring, a pediatrician and member of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.

"We're going to see more kids with asthma, more kids with asthma attacks," she said. "There's going to be more children who take daily medications to control their symptoms." More than 64,000 Utah children under 18 - and 168,000 adults - sought medical care for asthma in 2005. During northern Utah's winter inversion, Cache County and Salt Lake County have the sixth and eighth worst short-time episodes of microscopic soot in the nation, according to the latest State of the Air report by the American Lung Association.

Ring treats one family in which all four of the children have asthma. The parents wonder if Utah's pollution has something to do with it.

"It makes them think they need to move," she said.

Ring said the number of children with asthma nationally has jumped 100 percent since 1980. "Motor vehicle traffic in the United States has tripled [above] the population. It makes you wonder if they're related," she said.

No safe level: Researchers have not confirmed whether air pollution is linked to a higher prevalence of asthma, but it is known that air pollution aggravates it. Since lungs continue to develop into the 20s, children who live in polluted areas may not have full use of their lungs.

"What we have learned is there is no safe level of air pollution," said Gerald Ross, a member of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and doctor of family and environmental medicine.

Utah has guidelines for when children should stay indoors, and Nicole Frei, a Sandy pediatrician, is helping investigate whether they are scientifically sound. Researchers tested the lung function of students at Greenville Elementary in North Logan over the winter, and are analyzing the data to find out whether a 20-minute recess is enough to impair lung function.

"We know it's not good for you," Frei said. "The question is how much is too much?

"As a pediatrician, I'm always going to say, 'When it's poor air quality, you should limit your time [outside].' We have to balance that with promoting exercise in kids."

While Utah winters provide the most visible evidence of pollution, summer can pose problems for asthmatics, too, since ozone levels - the primary ingredient of smog - are high.

Doctors say an asthma "cure" will likely involve genetics. For now, management is the only remedy.

But medications don't work for Webster. So she's taking the energy she put into gymnastics into becoming a doctor to find a cure. She already has an internship at American Fork Hospital. She will become a certified nursing assistant next month. She is eyeing Stanford or Johns Hopkins for medical school.

"I don't want anybody to suffer like I have," she said. "Breathing should be a given - not something you have to work for."

hmay@sltrib.com