"One of our hypotheses is that what's underlying this huge mortality in African-American children is the fact that the most commonly prescribed drug for asthma is albuterol," says White. "The problem is that not everyone responds to albuterol the same way. And actually, Puerto Rican and African-American children have the worst drug response. So you're looking at two populations with the worst drug response with the highest mortality. We have a feeling those things might be related."