Air Pollution Linked To Asthma In Young Children
A new study shows that small particles from traffic and heating oil combustion may cause children younger than two to wheeze and cough, Reuters reported.
Researchers wrote in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine that high air pollution levels have previously been linked to asthma symptoms in children living in urban areas with heavy traffic.
However, this study is one of the first to investigate the types of particles that may be the most harmful.
Dr. Rachel L. Miller, lead investigator of the study and co-deputy director of the Columbia University Center for Children’s Environmental Health in New York City, told Reuters Health the study shows that there are multiple components of air pollution that we should be looking at in terms of health effects.
More than 700 children in northern Manhattan or the south Bronx were followed from birth to age two by Miller and her team.
Parents filled out a questionnaire every three months about any respiratory symptoms the infants had experienced. Factors such as seasonal allergy trends, ethnic group and exposure to tobacco smoke were also taken into account.
The researchers compared the results of the questionnaires with weekly pollution data from different sites in the community and found that high ambient levels of the metals nickel and vanadium were risk factors for wheezing, while exposure to carbon particles, a byproduct of diesel exhaust, was associated with coughing during the cold and flu season.
However, individual ingredients of air pollution may be responsible for asthma symptoms in young children, as total amounts of airborne particles were not associated with wheeze or cough.
The EPA currently sets air pollution standards based on total mass of fine particles.
Dr. Frank Gilliland, director of the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center, who was not involved in the study, said the new research raises questions about the best way to regulate air pollution to protect young children from its harmful effects.
"This study adds to a growing body of research suggesting that exposure to pollutants early in life may have health impacts later on," said Miller.
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