Tag : AirPollution

Lausanne (Switzerland): Researchers found that young children growing up in towns and cities have greater rates of respiratory illness than those growing up in the country. According to researchers, it is vital to understand why some otherwise healthy children have recurring illnesses and to look for treatments. Dr. Nicklas Brustad, a researcher and physician with the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC) at Gentofte Hospital and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, presented the first study. It included 663 children and their mothers who took part in the study from pregnancy to the age of three. Researchers discovered that before the age of three, children living in urban areas had an average of 17 respiratory ailments, such as coughs and colds, compared to 15 infections in children living in rural areas. The researchers also did extensive blood testing on pregnant women and their newborn newborns, as well as an examination of the children's immune systems four weeks after birth. They discovered that children in cities have different immune systems than those in rural areas. Blood samples from mothers and newborns vary, in addition to differences in living conditions and the frequency of respiratory diseases. Dr. Brustad said, “Our findings suggest that urban living is an independent risk factor for developing infections in early life when taking into account of several related factors such as exposure to air pollution and starting daycare. Interestingly, changes in the blood of pregnant mothers and newborn babies, as well as changes in the newborn immune system, seem to partly explain this relationship. “Our results suggest that the environment children live in can have an effect on their developing immu ...