Unanswered Questions About Prenatal Exposures and
Their Effects on Childhood Asthma
Tori Alvarado
Grand Valley State University Introduction Asthma is a disease that affects a person's lungs by causing repeated episodes of symptoms such as shortness of breath, tightness of chest, wheezing, and coughing. Asthma affects people of all ages, but it often develops during childhood. It is a very common chronic illness in children and as a result, consequences that can occur when it is uncontrolled is often forgettable. Since children have smaller airways than adults, it makes asthma especially serious for them. In 2009, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, stated that roughly one in ten children develop asthma
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Evidence suggests a role for particles and other traffic-related components in particular (Chiu et al, 2014). Exposure to environmental toxicants, such as air pollution starting in utero, couple potentially alter course of lung growth and affect both the structure and function of the respiratory system. Studies link prenatal air pollution exposure, including fine particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, with wheeze, respiratory tract infections, and reduced lung function in …show more content…
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Louis. When living in a hard up income area there is always a tightly packed space between older automobiles, busses, and trucks. This destroyed the ozone, which would bring about cardiovascular problems such as asthma attacks. In the article Gammon states that "In Southern California communities , exposure through air pollution and traffic emissions stunts children's lung growth ,according to USC research " This hints that if a child happens to live nearby or is nearby a polluted area he or she is unprotected and is exposed to having
Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children (Kahn and Boskey). Childhood asthma is when the lungs and airways become inflamed when something comes in contact to trigger it. There are different objects or activities to trigger a child’s asthma and if not treated appropriately it can cause an asthma attack. This disease can outbreak from a cold or any respiratory infection. Daily symptoms can interfere with a child’s asthma like a cold, sports, school, or play ("Childhood Asthma."). In the United States, it is estimated that approximately 5 million children under the age of 18 have this disease. In 1993 alone, asthma was the reason for almost 200,000 hospital stays and about 340 deaths under the age of 25 (Kahn and Boskey). Normally children will outgrow this disease by the time they
Pollution continues to pose an enormous threat to residents of urban cities worldwide. In the August 2008 Monthly Update, it is stated that approximately 800,000 deaths each year can be attributed to outdoor air pollution, making pollution the single most harmful environmental hazard to human health in urban areas (Kallman). The fact that pollution kills hundreds of thousands of people each year alone portrays just how dangerous living in these conditions can be. Kallman writes about a study which proves an increase in upper respiratory diseases, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory mortality, and low birth weights when exposed to air pollutants (August 2008: Monthly Update). These can be very serious diseases and complications which, when contracted, can lead to death or very serious illnesses. There
The primary health issues that come with the impact of air pollution are asthma, cardiovascular illnesses and premature mortality. These health issues are due to pollution and the poor air quality such as ozone. Thus, human health becomes a concern and issue. The individuals who are usually more vulnerable to such illnesses are the children and elderly. For example, there’s approximately 162,438 children under the age of and 258,586 adults aged 65 years and older in Riverside county that are prone to environmental health illnesses (cdph). According to UCLA institute of the Environment and Sustainability,
At various stages of asthma, preventative measures can be used to control or alleviate the symptoms associated with this disease. Education is an important component to every intervention phase, particularly in primary prevention, because the patient is encouraged to be proactive with their personal health in order to avoid and control the triggers. Prescribed medication, such as an inhaler, and an action plan that is individualized to the specific care of a particular patient is essential in the secondary prevention phase. Finally, in the tertiary prevention phase, the care is directed not only at the common asthmatic symptoms and triggers but also at the complications that result from long-term suffering of this disease. This paper focuses on environmental factors which trigger asthma, with specific focus on children from infancy to 16 years of age in low-income housing, and how the appropriate measure can minimize the triggers and symptoms. The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is the example we will use.
Asthmatic individuals can suffer from a reduced quality of life that is both physical and psychological. It was estimated in 2009 that approximately 17.5 million adults, and 7.1 million children suffer from asthma. An estimated total cost of this disease in 2010 was $20.7 billion dollars (Quality, 2014). This paper will focus on Pathopharmacological foundations, pathophysiology, pharmacological treatments, and the social and environmental impacts of asthma on our communities and nation.
Did you know many upper respiratory diseases such as asthma and others diseases like cataracts and skin cancer are aggravated by air pollution. The NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) states that “the following air pollutants are common triggers of asthma, ground level ozone, sulfur dioxide, fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxide.” Air pollution is the presence in or introduction into the air of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects.
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unweighted data. In our study, we evaluated the association between exposures and patients who had a one year prevalence of asthma, described as symptoms of asthma within that year using a χ2 analysis. Each of the three outcomes was analyzed as a distinct exposure variable and was collected through the initial phone survey. Associations are presented as relative risks with 95% confidence
About 10% of American children have asthma (Thakur et al., 2013). It is vital to understand what determinants cause childhood asthma to understand even with a low percentage, why it is still present. According to Williams et al., asthma is a health outcome which is a major impact on American youth (Williams et al., 2009). This health outcome not only impacts them throughout the years of being a child, but it has the potential of creating more serious health problems in the future. And without knowing what the causes are, it increases the rate asthma among children and prevents treatments from being implemented. It needs to be addressed by using results from prior studies in order to show how much of a problem childhood asthma is but also in finding and understanding the other underlying
Air pollution can be undoubtedly harmful to pregnancy. Substances such as carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, benzene, emissions from solid biomass, and nitroarenes all contribute to air pollution. Studies done in North Carolina, California, and East India all conclude the same thing; air pollutants do affect the health of babies during pregnancy. The most severe affects from these toxins include cancer, short-and-long-term morbidity, and stillbirth. Still damaging, yet less traumatizing effects include low birth weight, small for gestational age, and preterm birth. PM2.5 is particulate matter in the air. One study shows it reduces birth weight by 3.1 g (Gray, 2013). Because most of air
Asthma, as defined by the NIH, “is a chronic lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways. Asthma causes recurring periods of wheezing (a whistling sound when you breathe), chest tightness, shortness of breath, and coughing.” (National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute [NHLBI], 2015). There are risk factors that may predispose a child to developing asthma, which include having allergies, eczema, and/or having parents who have asthma. Asthma is not a disease that is preventable. (NHLBI, 2015). The risk or likelihood that someone would have asthma is based on the biological makeup of the individual that would predispose them to the disease, rather than behavioral, environmental, or even social factors.
Childhood asthma impacts scores of youngsters and their families. In fact, the bulk of kids develop respiratory illness before the age of
At age six of the child, parents were sent yet another survey which included items about smoking in the house, family history of respiratory symptoms, and illnesses. A finger prick test was also administered to 1,598 children. Exposure to breastfeeding was measured by the duration of breastfeeding and the duration of exclusive breastfeeding or the child’s age when other milk was introduced to them. Ultimately, the age when children were introduced to milk other than breast milk became the key variable in the research. After ruling out confounding variable researchers determined that introduction of milk other than breast milk before the age of four months was a significant risk factor for all asthma and atopy related outcomes in children aged six years (Oddy). The article written by Oddy supports the hypothesis by developing a relationship between the organisms consumed through breast milk at a young age. The conclusion of research in Oddy’s article claims that children who are exposed to breast milk for longer tend to avoid Asthma and
(ii) Infant and child mortality from respiratory diseases caused by short-term exposure (Ostro 2004); and