Air quality and childhood asthma linked

With air quality an increasing issue for all big Australian cities a study in Los Angeles, which has excellent air quality measurements, has confirmed that air pollution does influence the general health of babies and young children.

The findings from Los Angeles confirmed that high levels of air pollution were associated with both childhood asthma and low birth weight babies. In comparative terms it was established that Los Angeles air could have the same impact on a pregnant woman as smoking.

Whereas it was thought that the problem was carbon monoxide from exhausts because it can lock away oxygen from the body, the US research is suggesting the fine particles from traffic exhausts are the culprits. It is also regarded as likely that there is an association between air quality and deaths from heart attacks in vulnerable people and between lung cancer and diesel exhausts.