Air Pollution Stunts Lung Development in Teens
By Karla Gale,
Sep 8, 2004
NEW YORK
(Reuters Health) - Long-term
exposure to air pollution adversely affects lung function in teenagers,
results of The Children's Health Study indicate.
Previous studies of the effects of air pollution followed young
children for only 2 to 4 years, Dr. W. James Gauderman and colleagues note
in their paper, published in The New England Journal of Medicine. It was not known whether effects of exposure would persist
through adolescence into adulthood.
They therefore followed children from age 10 to age 18, performing
breathing tests each year. The study started with 1759 children enrolled in
1993, but with an attrition rate of approximately 10 percent annually, the
final group included 747 subjects in 2001.
Data for various measures of air pollution were gathered from air
monitoring stations set up in each of the 12 southern California
communities where the children lived, and which had various levels of
ambient air pollution.
Gauderman, at the University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues found that children
exposed to high pollutant levels were more likely to have poor lung function
than their peers exposed to low levels.
The effects of air pollutants on lung function "were similar in
boys and girls and remained significant among children with no history of
asthma and among those with no history of smoking," the authors write,
"suggesting that most children are susceptible to the chronic respiratory
effects of breathing polluted air."
As younger adults, those who grew up in polluted areas will
probably not suffer too much, Gauderman told Reuters Health. "There is some
evidence that reduced lung function may translate into more severe symptoms
if they come down with a cold or the flu."
However, "The bigger consequences are likely to occur later in
life, because data show reduced lung function in elderly patients is a
strong risk factor for respiratory disease and heart disease, as well as
death due to those conditions," he continued.
"The concern is that if deficits develop early on and are carried
with them throughout life, they'll be at increased risk for these conditions
at a younger age or perhaps at risk for more severe forms of those
illnesses."
The solution "rests on reduced emissions and regulatory decisions
that keep pressure on reducing air pollution levels," Gauderman concluded.
From one standpoint, these findings represent "good news," Dr. C.
Arden Pope, III, at Brigham Young
University in Provo, Utah, comments in an accompanying editorial. Air
pollution is just one of many risk factors for pulmonary and cardiovascular
disease, but it is modifiable. Therefore, he suggests, "The control of air
pollution represents an important opportunity to prevent disease."
SOURCE:
The New England Journal of Medicine, September 9, 2004
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