Ozone at officially acceptable levels still affects asthmatic children.Asthmatic children exposed to ozone at levels well below federal standards still suffer from environment-related respiratory symptoms, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a new study. The researchers monitored the symptoms and medication use of 271 asthmatic children living in Connecticut and Massachusetts, all younger than 12 years of age. The 140 children who had conditions classified as severe asthma, as defined by their daily use of prescription preventive medication, experienced a worsening of symptoms and an increased use of medication even on days with ozone levels that fell below limits set by federal standards. The study, which was published in the October 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal, published 48 times per year by the American Medical Association. JAMA is the most widely circulated medical journal in the world. , was conducted at the Yale University Yale University, at New Haven, Conn.; coeducational. Chartered as a collegiate school for men in 1701 largely as a result of the efforts of James Pierpont, it opened at Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1702, moved (1707) to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook), and in 1716 was School of Medicine. According to lead investigator Janneane Gent, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, the purpose of the study was to see what sorts of effects would be found in places where air quality is within limits set by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and (U.S. EPA EPA eicosapentaenoic acid. EPA abbr. eicosapentaenoic acid EPA, n.pr See acid, eicosapentaenoic. EPA, n. ) standards. By U.S. EPA standards, the air quality of a particular day is labeled "good" when ozone concentrations are 80 parts per billion or less. During the summer of 2001, levels exceeded the maximum for "good" on only three days. Gent and her colleagues found, however, that respiratory effects started at 60 parts per billion, and that children with severe asthma suffered from symptoms on at least half of the days studied. "This study is another piece of evidence that children with asthma are very vulnerable to ozone at levels that are quite a bit lower than those allowed by current U.S. EPA standards," Gent said. Asthma is the most common long-term childhood disease, affecting 6.3 million children in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , and researchers have shown that pollutants such as ozone can trigger symptoms. Ozone is a by-product by·prod·uct or by-prod·uct n. 1. Something produced in the making of something else. 2. A secondary result; a side effect. by-product Noun 1. of combustion from sources such as vehicle emissions and factories. (Adapted from The Nation's Health, December 2003/January 2004.) |
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