In-home particle concentrations and childhood asthma morbidity.

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All:

A paper to appear in Environmental Health Perspectives ( " In-home

particle concentrations and childhood asthma morbidity. " EHP

doi:10.1289/ehp.11770) described below purports to show a relationship

between outdoor particulate matter (PM) and asthma in inner city

children.

The authors note that " While the present study cannot delineate which

sources of PM measured indoors were responsible for the observed

health effects, these

findings suggest that improving air quality in the indoor environment

with a strategy that reduces PM concentration may improve asthma

health, " but state that " Although analyzing the composition of the

particles and investigating the mechanism by which PM exacerbates

asthma is beyond the scope of this present investigation. . . . "

The authors imply that the indoor PM is a function of the outdoor PM.

There are several flaws in the study not the least of which is the

fact that outdoor PM was measured up to two miles away from the home

sites studied.

It is common knowledge that particles, particularly indoor allegens

cause asthma symptoms. Unfortunately, this study tries to tie indoor

PM sources to outdoor sources without ever looking at possible indoor

sources.

May

May Indoor Air Investigations LLC

Tyngsborough, MA

www.mayindoorair.com

www.myhouseiskillingme.com

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Dec 16, 2008 ? McCormack MC, PN Breysse, EC Matsui, NN Hansel, D

, J Curtin-Brosnan, P Eggleston and GB Diette. 2008. In-home

particle concentrations and childhood asthma morbidity.

Environmental Health Perspectives doi:10.1289/ehp.11770.

Synopsis by D. Laiosa

A recent study confirms and broadens our understanding of asthma by

showing the respiratory disease is highly affected by particulate

matter.

For the first time, researchers report that asthma incidence and

severity is associated with a specific type of indoor air pollution,

referred to as course particulate matter. Specifically, the amounts of

wheezing, slowing of a child?s activity and use of rescue medication

were all elevated in children living in homes with more of this type

of indoor air pollution.

The study examined inner city children in Baltimore, MD, who are

primarily African-American. Researchers wanted to identify factors

that could explain why inner city African Amerians have both a higher

incidence rate and more severe asthma than in the general population.

In general, African-Americans are more likely than whites to live in

regions of poor outdoor air quality, which translates into higher

levels of indoor air pollutants that become trapped in poorly

ventilated buildings with small, enclosed spaces. This is of

particular concern because people spend the majority of their hours

inside.

Current national guidelines call for reducing outdoor particulate

matter levels in an effort to reduce asthma incidence. However, this

paper suggests that reducing indoor particulate matter is of more

immediate concern and with appropriate engineering improvements may be

easier to accomplish.

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/in-home-air-pollution-heig\

htens-asthma-symptoms

Full PDF copy:

http://www.ehponline.org/members/2008/11770/11770.pdf