The plan, devised by researchers and officials from Arizona's Departments of Education, Environmental Quality and Health Services, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Arizona State University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, at first included "standard" means of communication: warnings via SMS and e-mail, but they are also considering social networking.
And why not? Social networks - especially Twitter - are great for receiving current information on a topic. Using them for health alerts makes perfect sense. Recently, Microsoft announced Vine, a system that would leverage Twitter and other social networks for keeping people informed and organized in times of emergency.
Of course, if the idea goes through, this alert system will only be available in Arizona, which has one of the highest asthma rates in the US. But it's only a matter of time until social networks become a standard medium for issuing health and emergency alerts.