Traffic fumes increase the risks of child pneumonia

[demoleft]

Children who live near a main road are in greater danger of catching pneumonia because pollution from passing traffic damages their lungs. A leading expert in childhood breathing difficulties has made the link between exposure to particles from vehicle exhausts and a child's susceptibility to the chest infection, which can be fatal.

Professor Jonathan Grigg, an honorary consultant at the Royal London Hospital and academic paediatrician at Queen Mary, University of London, made the breakthrough after studying the effect of airborne pollutants on human lung cells. Children whose home is within 100 metres of a main road could be as much as 65% more likely than others to develop pneumonia, he said.

Although the disease is usually associated with the elderly, it is a significant childhood illness. Every year about 20,000 children and young people under 18 end up in hospital after contracting the condition. It can also be fatal. Between 2004 and 2008, it killed between 60 and 77 patients aged under 20 annually, of whom between 38 and 52 were under the age of five, according to data from the Office of National Statistics.

Children under 12 months are the most likely to die. Of the 76 young people under 20 who died in 2008, 29 had not reached their first birthday – 20 boys and nine girls – and 23 others were between one and four.



the guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jan/24/traffic-pollution-child-pneumonia

[Luminous Animal]

1. It's time to ban vehicles from public places.

[Hannah Bell]

2. no, no, second hand cigarette smoke -- even a whiff -- kills children. not auto exhaust.

[taterguy]

3. Kicking and recommending because this is an important story

(I suspect it will drop like a rock)

[taterguy]

4. Gratuitous kick