A Prospective Study of the Impact of Air Pollution on Respiratory Symptoms and Infections in Infants

Abstract

Exposure to even moderate levels of air pollution was associated with increased respiratory symptoms in healthy infants. Particularly in infants with premorbid lung function and inflammation, air pollution contributed to longer duration of infectious episodes with a potentially large socioeconomic impact.

Dynamics of the nasal microbiota in infancy: A prospective cohort study

“…The study infant's health status, as well as respiratory symptoms and antibiotic therapy, were assessed. 16 Nasal swabs taken during upper or lower respiratory tract infection or while the infant received antibiotic therapy were excluded from the analysis because the goal of the present study was to analyze swabs of clinically healthy infants at the time of sampling.…”

Environmental Pollution and the Developing Lung

“…PM 10 and traffic exposure are significantly associated with prolonged duration of LRTIs. 81 There is a growing body of literature that suggests that early exposure to pollutants increases the risk of asthma. Increased NO 2 exposure during infancy increases asthma risk in minority children.…”

Urban particulate matter increases human airway epithelial cell IL-1β secretion following scratch wounding and H1N1 influenza A exposurein vitro

“…Respiratory virus transmissions and infections often occur in the context of air pollution, within urban centers [16,17]. We therefore decided to expand the scope of our study to include viruses in our pollution and mechanical scratch-wounding model.…”

“…Epidemiological and experimental evidence has suggested a link between air pollution exposure and the symptoms associated with respiratory viral infections [13][14][15][16][17]. The biological mechanisms responsible for this observation remain incompletely explored.…”