Traffic fumes raise asthma risk in children

Pollution from heavy traffic can make children more susceptible to asthma, wheezing and coughs, scientists said yesterday.

Researchers from Taiwan and Germany have shown chemicals in car exhausts lead to an increased risk of respiratory disorders in children living in heavy traffic areas.

"Our results support the increasingly popular hypothesis that exposure to traffic pollution modifies children's susceptibility to allergens," said Yueliang Leon Guo of Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University.

The Taiwanese scientists compared air pollution levels and cases of allergic rhinitis, or hayfever, in a study of 800 Taiwanese schools.

They found boys exposed to high levels of pollution had a 16 per cent higher risk of hayfever, linked to the development of asthma, while girls showed a 17 per cent increase.

"While more boys than girls ... suffer from allergic rhinitis, traffic pollution seems to have the same impact on both sexes," Guo added.

In a separate study in the European Respiratory Journal, Thomas Nicolai, of University Children's Hospital in Munich, and his team compared traffic density and exposure to pollutants with health records of nearly 4000 children.

Youngsters living within 50m of roads where more than 33,000 vehicles passed by each day were almost twice as likely to suffer from asthma than other children.

"High vehicle traffic was associated with asthma, cough and wheeze," Nicolai said in the report.

- REUTERS