It is affecting the trees, the moulds, the subsurface organisms

[Guest guest]

Global warming behind soaring child asthma

03.05.2004

Poor and minority children are likely to develop asthma at worsening

rates due to global warming and air pollution, United States

environment experts predict.

As the climate gets warmer, allergens such as pollen and mould will

flood the air, interacting with urban pollutants such as ozone and

soot to fuel an already growing epidemic.

" It is affecting the trees, the moulds, the subsurface organisms, "

said Dr Epstein of Harvard Medical School's Centre for Health

and the Global Environment, one of the authors of the report.

" The combination of air pollutants, aero-allergens, heat waves and

unhealthy air masses increasingly associated with a changing climate

causes damage to the respiratory systems, particularly of growing

children, and these impacts disproportionately affect poor and

minority groups in the inner cities, " the report says.

It finds that asthma among US preschool children, age 3 to 5, grew

160 per cent between 1980 and 1994.

" This is a real wake-up call for people who think global warming is

only going to be a problem way off in the future or that it has no

impact on their lives in a meaningful way, " said , a

senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health who

collaborated with Dr Epstein on the report, as did the American

Public Health Association.

" The problem is here today for these children and it is only going to

get worse. "

Most climate experts agree that the world is becoming steadily

warmer, and that human activity is much to blame. Burning fossil

fuels such as coal and gas releases carbon dioxide into the air.

The carbon dioxide forms a type of invisible blanket that traps the

sun's radiation.

Although average temperatures warm, the effects are not predictable

and even. Storms may become more severe and some areas may get colder

weather.

The report finds that in some regions, winter is ending weeks

earlier, and plants are releasing their pollen earlier, accelerating

the hay fever season.

Pollen and fungal spores can worsen asthma, a serious medical

condition the symptoms of which include shortness of breath, cough,

wheezing, chest pain or tightness.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says nine million US

children have been diagnosed with asthma and more than 4 million have

had an asthma attack in the past 12 months.

It says 4487 people died from asthma in the US in 2000, most of them

adults.

Asthma affects blacks more than any other group and affects 16 per

cent of children from poor families as opposed to 11 per cent of

children living above the poverty line.

The CDC also says nine million US children were reported with

respiratory allergies in 2002.

The Harvard report makes clear links among asthma, allergies and

urban air pollution.

" Rising levels of carbon dioxide, in addition to trapping more heat,

promote pollen production in plants, increase fungal growth and alter

species composition in plant communities by favouring opportunistic

weeds like ragweed and poison ivy, " the report reads.

" Diesel particulates help deliver and present pollen and mould

allergens to the immune system in the lungs. "

Dr Epstein said: " The good news is we can do something about

this. " 'Green' buildings with roof gardens to keep them cool and

insulation to keep heat from leaking would help, as would improving

public transport and encouraging the use of hybrid vehicles that rely

less on fossil fuels.

* NZ has one of the highest asthma rates in the world.

* Surveys show that 10 per cent of adult New Zealanders now take

treatments for asthma, and a third of 12- and 13-year-olds have had

episodes of wheezing in the past year.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?

storyID=3563965 & thesection=news & thesubsection=general

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Health

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