New research links poor air quality to increase in asthma cases. (EH Update).

Any parent who has sat through the night watching a child gasp for air knows that even mild asthma causes great suffering. Parents watch helplessly as their child's lungs constrict and each new breath seems to be drawn up a narrow straw. The child's panic rises, the heart races, and breathing becomes an increasing struggle.

In the United Kingdom, an average of 30 people are killed by asthma each week, and more than five million patients are undergoing treatment at any time. Children appear to be particularly vulnerable, and compared with 25 years ago, there has been a sixfold increase in the number of cases. The disease is reaching epidemic proportions. One in seven children in the United Kingdom are afflicted, and in the United States, over nine million children have developed the life-threatening condition. Theories abound about the causes of asthma--it has been linked to obesity, poor housing, breast milk, junk food, pet ownership, and indoor air quality, to name but a few suspects.

The U.K. government and the European Commission now appear to be taking seriously the results of a U.S. study that claims to have demonstrated, for the first time, that children exposed to ozone are more likely to develop the disease.

Researchers compared new asthma cases in 3,535 children from 12 Southern Californian communities that were monitored over five years. Six areas had relatively good air quality, while the other half suffered some of the worst smog episodes in America. The study also focused on children who played a lot of outdoor sports, such as football, basketball, and baseball, which required them to breath in up to 17 times more air when they exerted themselves.

Out of the sample group, 265 children were diagnosed as suffering from asthma during the study. Children exerting themselves in the polluted cities were found to be three times more likely to develop the disease.

"This research suggests that, contrary to conventional wisdom, ozone is involved in the causation of asthma," explained lead author Rob McConnell, associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California. "Somewhat to our surprise, in low-ozone communities we found no increased risk of asthma in children who played team sports."

Professor McConnell added that other risk factors, such as family income, smoking habits, pest infestations, and history of allergies had all been controlled in the study.

A year before, scientists at the University of California-Davis had found that rhesus monkeys who had been breathing ozone for five months developed symptoms similar to those of a child with borderline asthma, Professor Charles Popper, who led that research team, had previously found that ozone did not cause the same level of lung damage in adult monkeys.

Following publication of last month's findings, U.K. Environment Minister Michael Meacher announced that he would refer the research to the official committee on the medical effects of air pollution for further investigation. European Union Environment Minister Margot Wallstrom has called for a review of pollution levels in member states, as a result of the research, and has declared that children's health will go to the top of the commission's agenda.

(Adapted, with permission, from Environmental Health News, Vol. 17, No, 11,2002.)