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newsrel -- Traffic pollution linked to new cases of asthma

Posted: 23 Apr 2009 09:46:16
Smog shown to have clear link to inducing asthma. 

Release 09-36
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 23, 2009
	  	  	
Dimitri Stanich
916-322-2990
www.arb.ca.gov

Traffic pollution linked to new cases of asthma

New findings substantiate efforts to reduce smog

SACRAMENTO: Today the California Air Resources Board heard the
results of a study that found childhood asthma rates could
increase as much as 30 percent with the exposure to higher levels
of traffic-related air pollution.

The eight-year study followed 217 non-asthmatic children from a
wide area of Southern California. Home air monitors allowed
scientists to compare the children's exposure to air pollution
and newly diagnosed cases of asthma. It was found that higher
amounts of nitrogen dioxide, a constituent of smog, are
associated with the development of childhood asthma.

"California's prosperity depends on the choices we make to
protect our children," said ARB Chairman Mary D. Nichols. "This
study underlines the need for clean air, giving us the benefits
of a fully healthy population."

Published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the
study is the latest to come from the Southern California
Children's Health Study, a project pioneered by the Air Resources
Board in the early 1990s. This, the most extensive investigation
into air pollution's impact on the young, has provided data that
resulted in over 100 peer-reviewed articles with several ground
breaking results.

One of these studies found that children exercising on days with
high ozone concentrations also had an increased likelihood of
developing asthma.

"Good air quality is fundamental to good health," added
Nichols.

Recent studies have shown that the reduction of air pollution is
also economically beneficial. It diminishes the costs associated
with lost work and school days, medications to address illnesses,
hospital visits and smog-related premature deaths."

The Air Resources Board is a department of the California
Environmental Protection Agency. ARB's mission is to promote and
protect public health, welfare, and ecological resources through
effective reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and
considering effects on the economy. The ARB oversees all air
pollution control efforts in California to attain and maintain
health based air quality standards.

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