Research shows that high levels of air pollution can cause asthma in both children and adults. Exposure to air pollution has been linked to triggering and worsening asthma due to the inhalation of particulate matter and ozone emitted by vehicles and factories.
Indoor Air Pollution European Environment Agency
As you well know pollution can be one of the most common triggers of asthma sufferers but what if it was actually the cause of your asthma in the first place.
Does pollution cause asthma. Rusznak C Devalia JL Davies RJ. The estimated six million children in the United States with asthma are especially vulnerable to air pollution. Four million children develop asthma every year as a result of air pollution from cars and trucks equivalent to 11000 new cases a day a landmark study has found.
Air pollution can make asthma symptoms worse and trigger asthma attacks. Ambient air pollution and respiratory disease. The impact of pollution on allergic disease.
Traffic pollution may cause asthma Several studies released in the last two decades overwhelmingly suggest the role of common traffic pollutants in the development and worsening of asthma. Air pollution especially traffic-related pollution can increase the chances of developing asthma in adults as well. Breathing polluted air can also cause asthma attacks in people who already have asthma.
Pollution can also make people with asthma more sensitive to their usual asthma triggers such as house dust mites pollen pets moulds and fungi children and young adults with asthma are more at risk from the effects of pollution because they have faster breathing rates and their lungs are still developing. Air pollution includes gases smoke from fires volcanic ash and dust particles. Air pollution can cause asthma symptoms to become worse and trigger asthma attacks in people of any age but children appear to be especially vulnerable.
Children living in areas with high pollution are more at risk. Environmental factors which cause asthma are those that induce airway inflammation with eosinophils more common or neutrophils along with airway hyperresponsiveness AHR. Am Rev Respir Dis.
Pollution is still considered to be a major contributing factor to rising asthma rates in Western societies such as the US UK and Australia. The most common of these indeed the most common cause of asthma are IgE-mediated inhalant allergen exposures. Research shows that air pollution can worsen asthma symptoms.
The researchers point out that pollution is a common aggravator of asthma but has not been proven as a definite cause of the lung disorder. Air pollution containing PM are responsible for the worsening of symptoms in those with asthma due to oxidative stress and both inflammation and hyperresponsiveness of the airways 9. Biagini RE Moorman WJ Lewis TR Bernstein IL.
In addition to missing more school students with asthma may perform worse than their peers. For example one study of 1200 children in Boston found. Therefore it is imperative to ensure asthma treatments are utilised to attenuate the incidence of irritation and worsening of asthma related symptoms.
There are many studies that point to pollution as a major contributor. Air pollution exposure is thought to potentially cause asthma in children by impacting the developing lung and immune system. Ozone enhancement of platinum asthma in a primate model.
1 2 However whether or not air pollutants are involved in the initiation of new cases of asthma in those previously free from the condition is less clear. Given the high level of public concern about both air pollution and asthma. Abramson M Voigt T.
It is widely accepted that exposure to ambient concentrations of air pollutants can cause shortterm exacerbations in those who already have asthma. 3 Also exposure to air pollution during a childs first few years of life has been found to increase the risk of asthma throughout childhood and adolescence. With each car we add a little more toxicity to the air we breathe and we cant be surprised that these pollutants would eventually affect our health.
A study of young campers with moderate to severe asthma showed they were 40 percent more likely to have acute asthma episodes on high pollution summer days than on days with average pollution levels. And if youre exposed to high levels of pollution when youre pregnant whether you have asthma yourself or not your baby could be more likely to develop asthma. EPA studies the link between air pollution and asthma so that action can be taken to reduce the health burden associated with the disease.
3 Ozone is a central component of traffic-related pollution. In 2000 researchers at the University of California Davis found that monkeys exposed to ozone developed asthma after only a few months of exposure. Lifetime exposure to black carbon or soot and microscopic air particles known as particulate matter or PM was linked to asthma in early childhood 3-5 years old.
Air pollution remains one of the most under-appreciated contributors to asthma exacerbation wrote George Thurston an associate professor of environmental medicine at New York University School of Medicine in a 2005 article in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology JACI.
