Sports, Pollution Linked to Asthma

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Sports, Pollution Linked to Asthma

Some Children Playing Outside Have More Breathing Problems

By , MD

Jan. 31, 2002 -- The frequency of asthma in children continues to rise, and

pollution has been linked to asthma in previous medical studies. Now, a new

study shows that kids who play outdoor sports in cities with high levels of

pollution are more than three times as likely to develop asthma.

Asthma is the most common long-term disease of childhood, according to

researchers in the medical journal The Lancet. Prior medical research has

pointed to several possible reasons -- early-life infections, diet, exposure

to indoor allergy-causing substances, and indoor and outdoor pollution.

Pollution is known to make breathing more difficult in children with asthma.

But whether pollution can actually cause asthma is not known. This is

particularly important in kids exposed to high amounts of pollution, such as

during outdoor sports.

Researchers from the University of Southern California School of Medicine in

Los Angeles studied more than 3,500 children to try to figure out the

association between pollution, outdoor sports, and asthma. The kids -- who

did not have asthma at the start of the study -- were from 12 different

communities in southern California.

The children were followed for five years, and during that time, 265

children developed asthma.

Compared with kids that did not play any outdoor sports, kids that played

three or more outdoor sports in communities with high amounts of ozone, a

pollutant, were more than three times as likely to have asthma. In

communities with low levels of ozone, sports had no effect on asthma.

Likewise, the more time spent outside in high ozone communities, the more

likely the kids were to develop asthma. Time outside had no effect in low

ozone communities.

The researchers conclude that the rising number of children with asthma is

associated with heavy exercise in communities with high levels of ozone,

said lead researcher Rob McConnell in a news release.

More studies are pointing to pollution as a possible contributor to the rise

in asthma in the U.S. So the next question is, what can be done about it?

Is it reasonable to restrict outdoor activities in children? Though that may

lessen breathing problems in kids, this would likely only contribute further

to the epidemic of obesity in children.

Rather than trading asthma for obesity, scientists need to figure out how to

bring down the ozone levels. That seemed to make all the difference in this

study.

In the meantime, if your child is having difficulty breathing, talk to you

doctor about proper treatment and about the effect pollution may be having

on your child's lungs.

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