Infants at Risk of Respiratory Symptoms at Ozone Levels at or Near EPA Standards
Young children may be particularly sensitive to ozone because significant lung development continues after birth. This study followed close to 700 infants born in southwestern Virginia during the summer months in 1995 and 1996.
Air quality levels were monitored in Vinton, Virginia, near Roanoke. Mothers were interviewed at enrollment and biweekly to report infants’ daily respiratory symptoms.
Maximum 8-hour ozone and peak 1-hour ozone were associated with difficulty breathing, but not wheeze, in infants of asthmatic others. Ozone was not associated with cough in this study. The mean concentrations in this study (55 ppb 8-hour average, and 61 ppb peak 1-hour concentration) were below the EPA standards of 80 ppb and 120 ppb, respectively.
Infants of mothers who have asthma were found to have consistently higher risk of respiratory symptoms with increasing ozone exposure.
“At levels of ozone exposure near or below current EPA standards, infants are at increased risk of respiratory symptoms,” concludes a study by Yale University medical researchers.
Triche EW, Gent JF, Holford TR, Belanger K, Bracken MB, Beckett WS, Laeher L, McSharry J-E, Leaderer BP. Low-Level Ozone Exposure and Respiratory Symptoms in Infants. Environ Health Perspect. Published online 29 December 2005. doi: 10.1289/ehp.8559.
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