Cigarette use may explain asthma epidemic in children, says Mailman School of Public He...( May 21 2007 -- The rise in cigarette ...)

Cigarette use may explain asthma epidemic in children, says Mailman School of Public Health study

May 21, 2007 -- The rise in cigarette use by adults over the past century may explain the asthma epidemic in children according to a study by researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health. The study is published this month in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

The prevalence of asthma has increased at least threefold during the past several decades, but the cause for this remains unknown, according to author Renee D. Goodwin, PhD, MPH, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health. The increase is occurring most prominently in industrialized countries, but now developing countries are beginning to experience similar increases.

We have identified parallel increases in childhood asthma and cigarette use among adults during the past century in the United States. These parallel trends suggest that the increase in cigarette use may be a contributing factor to the rise in asthma among children during the same period through increased exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, said Dr. Goodwin.

Approximately 4.8 million children under age 18 have asthma in the United States. Although treatment and asthma management strategies can help control symptoms, asthma is a chronic condition with no known cure. Asthma most frequently begins in childhood. The cause is unknown, but allergies are a factor in the majority of children with asthma.

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) inhaled unintentionally by nonsmokers has a higher concentration of some toxic substances than the smoke inhaled by smokers, such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Children breathe more air than adults and have narrower airways, so ETS is a greater causal risk factor of asthma in children. It can also increase the severity of their asthma symptoms.

Both genetic and environmental risk factors for asthma have b
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Contact: Stephanie Berger
sb2247@columbia.edu
212-305-4372
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
21-May-2007

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