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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Emissions from vehicles have a role in childhood asthma: Study-Jacob P Koshy

Emissions from vehicles have a role in childhood asthma: Study-Jacob P Koshy

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published Published on Mar 22, 2013   modified Modified on Mar 22, 2013
-Live Mint


Research conducted in 10 European cities; results comparable to the burden associated with passive smoking

Exposure to vehicular pollution near busy roads is responsible for 14% of chronic childhood asthma cases, according to a new research conducted in 10 European cities.

The results are comparable to the burden associated with passive smoking which, the World Health Organization estimates, causes between 4% and 18% of asthma cases in children.

The study was carried out in Barcelona, Bilbao, Brussels, Granada, Ljubljana, Rome, Seville, Stockholm, Valencia and Vienna. Indian experts said that a similar study in Indian cities would likely show such pollution account for a greater incidence of asthma.

The findings by a team of researchers led by Laura Perez of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, which are to be published by the European Respiratory Journal, have significant implications for Indian cities, where vehicular pollution is increasingly being associated with respiratory illness.

"Air quality standards in India are at least a generation behind those of Europe," said Anumita Roychowdhury of the Centre for Science and Environment. "Couple that with our climate and the range of pollutants in Indian vehicular exhaust, it would be far worse here."

While there are no standardized estimates of the true incidence of asthma in India, a report by the South Asia Network for Chronic Disease says that between 3% and 12% of India's population are asthmatic at various levels of severity.

India's health ministry, in a 2010 report, said that 13 million people aged 15 years and above suffer from asthma and 11 million above the age of 35 suffer from chronic bronchitis and that in both categories, men are worse off than women.

Though India monitors key pollutants in metropolitan cities from vehicular and industrial exhausts, several experts say that steps to stem the rise in pollution levels are inadequate.

Until now, traffic pollution was assumed to only trigger asthma symptoms and estimates of asthma burden did not account for chronic asthma caused by the specific range of toxic elements that are found near heavily used roads along which many Europeans live.

The researchers used a method known as population-attributable fractions to assess the impact of near-road traffic pollution.

This calculates the proportional reduction in disease or death that would occur if exposure to a risk factor were reduced to a lower level.

The new research also used data from existing epidemiological studies which found that children exposed to higher levels of near-road traffic-related pollution also had higher rates of asthma, even when taking into account a range of other relevant factors such as passive smoking or socio-economic factors.

The researchers said that they planned to take these findings further and estimate how many asthma cases could be avoided if such exposure was removed.

The results found that 14% of asthma cases across the 10 cities could be attributed to near-road traffic pollution and adjust for the differences in the health of the overall population in different cities.

"This is the first time we have estimated the percentage of cases that might not have occurred if Europeans had not been exposed to road traffic pollution," said lead author Perez. "We must consider these results to improve policymaking and urban planning."

The findings come on the heels of a February report by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) project that said outdoor air pollution claimed 627,000 lives in India in 2010, ranking it alongside health risks such as high blood pressure, tobacco consumption and alcoholism.

The GBD said that globally, air pollution-related deaths have increased by 300% since 2000 and nearly 65% of these deaths occur in Asia.


Live Mint, 22 March, 2013, http://www.livemint.com/Politics/ralRvtteUUKNBk0ZlBj0eI/Emissions-from-vehicles-have-a-role-in-childhood-asthma-Stu.html


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