Parents should remove risk factors to reduce asthma in children

More than half a million American children aged under 6 years with asthma would not have the disease if risk factors such as tobacco smoke and pets were removed from their homes, a new study published in the current issue of Pediatrics has found (2001;107:505-11).

Dr Bruce Lanphear, associate professor of paediatrics at the Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati and lead author of the study, said: “If residential exposures, including tobacco smoke and indoor allergens, were eliminated, and if these exposures are determined to cause asthma—which is the central hypothesis among experts—we would reduce asthma in this age group by 39%, or about 530 …