Environmental Toxins: Study Links Allergy Risk and Exhaust

A new study out of the University of Cincinnati says that a new model measuring children's exposure to diesel exhaust helps predict a child's risk of wheezing. Pat Ryan, the lead author of the study, says that the model could help establish the link between pollutant, allergies and asthma. While researchers still have not made a concrete link, earlier data from an ongoing asthma and allergy study shows that babies who are exposed to high levels of elemental carbon, a part of diesel exhaust, were more than twice as likely as babies who were exposed to lower levels.

UC Research Links Allergy Risk, Exhaust

Ryan says that the most widely used methods of calculating exposure to diesel exhaust do not consider the wide range of pollutants that babies in urban areas are exposed to. The new method takes more variables into consideration and can better predict an individual's exposure. Ryan says that these variables can be as specific has a building's elevation, which can affect how much exhaust reaches a child. "It can be a school. It can be a day care. It can be whatever. You look at the roads and the traffic patterns and the numbers of trucks or buses, and calculate the exposure," he said. Study results strongly suggest that early exposure to diesel and pollutants increases a child's risk for developing allergies and asthma.