Acute Effects of Asian Dust Events on Respiratory Symptoms and Peak Expiratory Flow in Children with Mild Asthma

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the possible adverse effects of Asian dust events on respiratory health in asthmatic children. Fifty-two children with mild asthma were studied for eight consecutive weeks in the spring of 2004 (March 8 to May 2). During the study period, five Asian dust days were identified; we included a lag period of two days following each of the events. Subjects recorded their respiratory symptom diaries and peak expiratory flow (PEF) twice daily during the study period; and they underwent methacholine bronchial challenge tests. The subjects reported a significantly higher frequency of respiratory symptoms during the Asian dust days than during the control days. They showed significantly more reduced morning and evening PEF values, and more increased PEF variability (10.1%±3.5% vs. 5.5%±2.2%) during the Asian dust days than during the control days. Methacholine PC20 was not significantly different between before and after the study period (geometric mean: 2.82 mg/mL vs. 3.16 mg/mL). These results suggest that the short-term Asian dust events might be associated with increased acute respiratory symptoms and changes in PEF outcomes. However, there might be little long-term influence on airway hyperresponsiveness in children with mild asthma.

What do we know about effects of desert dust on air quality and human health in West Africa compared to other regions?

“…Other studies in Taiwan and in Korea indicated a statistically significant association between Asian dust events and daily pneumonia admissions one day after the event (Cheng et al, 2008). In addition, dust storms are impacting on the respiratory symptoms of patients with bronchial asthma (Park et al, 2005;Yoo et al, 2008). Moreover, studies done in other regions of the world have underlined two key points.…”

Desert dust impacts on human health: an alarming worldwide reality and a need for studies in West Africa

“…It can be expected that a short-duration dust storm taking place during a wet period may have little significant impact on health in downwind reach areas. Conversely, however, there is evidence that people are becoming more concerned about the possible adverse effects of dust because dust events have increased in magnitude and frequency (Yoo et al 2008). Many studies carried out in West Africa emphasise recent increases in desertification processes (e.g.…”

“…In one study, Saharan dust days (SDDs) were defined by combining light detection and ranging (LIDAR) observations and analyses from operational models (Mallone et al 2011). Finally, some studies used direct information from the Ministry of Special Agency about dust events Watanabe et al 2011;Yoo et al 2008).…”

“…In central China, dust events with a lag of 3 days have been shown to be a risk factor for daily hospitalisation for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases (Meng and Lu 2007). Studies reported that, in Korea, dust events are associated with increased daily mortality (Lee et al 2007), stroke, asthma Yoo et al 2008) and atopic asthma (Hwang et al 2008). Dust storms also have an impact on cardiopulmonary emergency admissions (Chan et al 2008) and on the respiratory symptoms of subjects with bronchial asthma (Park et al 2005) in Taiwan.…”

Distribution and Characteristics of Microorganisms Associated with Settled Particles During Asian Dust Events

“…These isolates belonged to either genus Bacillus or genus Streptococcus and were tentatively identified as B. 기존 국내에서의 황사에 대한 연구는 modeling을 통한 이동 경로 분석, 미세먼지의 농도, 화학적 조성 및 입자의 크기 분포, 호흡기 질환과의 관계에 관한 역학 조사 등에 관한 것이 다수를 차지하고 있다 (Lee et al, 2007;Park et al, 2008;Yoo et al, 2008). 국제적으로는 황사 먼지를 통한 미생물의 장거리 이동에 대한 여러 연구가 있다 (Ichinose et al, 2008;Iwasaka et al, 2009 …”