Health & Environmental Research Online (HERO)


Print Feedback Export to File
1274013 
Journal Article 
[Air pollution and asthma in children] 
Just, J; Nikasinovic, L; Laoudi, Y; Grimfeld, A 
2007 
1 
Revue Francaise d'Allergologie et d'Immunologie Clinique
ISSN: 0335-7457 
47 
3 
207-213 
French 
WOS:000246538900029 
The prevalence of asthma and allergic diseases doubled during the last quarter of the 20th century, particularly among children and adolescents. Given this fact, we cannot attribute this increase exclusively to genetic factors. Environmental factors to which it has been attributed include exposure to allergens and to airborne physicochemical pollutants, and changes in the characteristics of respiratory infections in young infants. In this review, we will point out the role of exposure to air pollutants and their interaction with other environmental factors. Whereas concentrations of the ‘classical’ air quality indicators (SO2, CO) have more or less decreased steadily in developed countries, asthma prevalence has increased during the same period. However, the relation between the increase incidence of asthma and atmospheric pollution should be examined with the knwoledge that there has been an increase in new forms of pollution, in particular, ultrafine particles. There are at present many experimental studies which show that urban pollution (especially that associated with diesel exhaust particles) elicits chronic oxidative stress, bronchial hyperreactivity and allergic inflammation. Several epidemiological studies suggest that there is an association between the density of automobile traffic and the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, especially asthma and allergic rhinitis. Exposure to automobile traffic-related pollutants during early infancy may accelerate or even provoke, among genetically susceptible subjects, bronchial inflammatory processes which could contribute to the increase in the incidence of asthma in industrialized countries. 
air pollution; asthma; allergy; children 
2nd Allergy Francophone Congress 
Paris, France 
April 11-13, 2007 
• ISA-NOx (2016)
     Considered
          Health Effects