A history of increased level of lifetime exposure to ambient O3 is associated with decreased function of airways in which O3 deposition in the lungs is the greatest. Adolescents with intrinsically smaller airways appear to be at greatest risk. Any environmental or genetic factors that lead to reduced airway size may lead to increased susceptibility to the adverse effects of ambient ozone.

Prenatal and early-life exposures to CO, PM10, and NO2 have a negative effect on pulmonary function in subgroups of asthmatic children.

BackgroundAsthma is the most important chronic disease of childhood. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that children with asthma continue to be susceptible to ozone-associated adverse effects on their disease.ObjectivesThis study was designed to evaluate time trends in associations between declining warm-season O3 concentrations and hospitalization for asthma in children.MethodsWe undertook an ecologic study of hospital discharges for asthma during the high O3 seasons in California’s South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) in children who ranged in age from birth to 19 years from 1983 to 2000. We used standard association and causal statistical analysis methods. Hospital discharge data were obtained from the State of California; air pollution data were obtained from the California Air Resources Board, and demographic data from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 U.S. Census. SoCAB was divided into 195 spatial grids, and quarterly average O3, sulfurdioxide, particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide were assigned to each unit for 3-month periods along with demographic variables.ResultsO3 was the only pollutant associated with increased hospital admissions over the study period. Inclusion of a variety of demographic and weather variables accounted for all of the non-O3 temporal changes in hospitalizations. We found a time-independent, constant effect of ambient levels of O3 and quarterly hospital discharge rates for asthma. We estimate that the average effect of a 10-ppb mean increase in any given mean quarterly 1-hr maximum O3 over the 18-year median of 87.7 ppb was a 4.6% increase in the same quarterly outcome.ConclusionsOur data indicate that at current levels of O3 experienced in Southern California, O3 contributes to an increased risk of hospitalization for children with asthma.

BackgroundEndotoxins are found in indoor dust generated by human activity and pets, in soil, and adsorbed onto the surfaces of ambient combustion particles. Endotoxin concentrations have been associated with respiratory symptoms and the risk of atopy and asthma in children.ObjectiveWe characterized the temporal and spatial variability of ambient endotoxin in Fresno/Clovis, California, located in California’s Central Valley, to identify correlates and potential predictors of ambient endotoxin concentrations in a cohort of children with asthma [Fresno Asthmatic Children’s Environment Study (FACES)].MethodsBetween May 2001 and October 2004, daily ambient endotoxin and air pollutants were collected at the central ambient monitoring site of the California Air Resources Board in Fresno and, for shorter time periods, at 10 schools and indoors and outdoors at 84 residences in the community. Analyses were restricted to May–October, the dry months during which endotoxin concentrations are highest.ResultsDaily endotoxin concentration patterns were determined mainly by meteorologic factors, particularly the degree of air stagnation. Overall concentrations were lowest in areas distant from agricultural activities. Highest concentrations were found in areas immediately downwind from agricultural/pasture land. Among three other measured air pollutants [fine particulate matter, elemental carbon (a marker of traffic in Fresno), and coarse particulate matter (PMc)], PMc was the only pollutant correlated with endotoxin. Endotoxin, however, was the most spatially variable.ConclusionsOur data support the need to evaluate the spatial/temporal variability of endotoxin concentrations, rather than relying on a few measurements made at one location, in studies of exposure and and respiratory health effects, particularly in children with asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases.

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