False warning about asthma

Waterbury Republican-American ^ | February 2, 2011 | Editorial

[Graybeard58]

With Republicans in control of the House for the first time since early 2007 and relevant in the Senate for the first time since early 2009, Americans are holding out hope for deliverance from some of the more onerous regulations imposed on them by Democratic lawmakers and bureaucrats. The liberal response to this faint but discernible strand of hope has bordered on panic.

Consider the National Resources Defense Council's reaction to a Republican effort to block updates to the federal Clean Air Act.

"By blocking the (Environmental Protection Agency), the lawmakers would be allowing polluters to continue emitting unsafe amounts of cancer-causing toxic, soot and smog pollution from cement plants as well as unlimited amounts of carbon dioxide from most industrial plants," the council said in a lengthy Jan. 27 news release. Predictably, the council pushed asthmatic children to the front lines: "If these lawmakers are successful in blocking the EPA from doing its job to cut life-threatening pollution, more asthma sufferers, particularly children, will wind up gasping for breath."

Hysterical.

The truth about air pollution and asthma are the precise opposite of what the council is peddling.

Since the 1970s, asthma cases have doubled while air-pollution levels have plummeted. Between 1980 and 2006, levels of fine particulate matter fell 40 percent; ozone, 20 percent; nitrous oxide, 37 percent; sulfur dioxide, 63 percent; carbon monoxide, 74 percent; and lead, 96 percent. The link between asthma and air pollution isn't weak; it's nonexistent.

So what is causing the increase in asthma? Childhood obesity is one prominent factor, easily documented. Another is outgassing from modern building materials and the emergence of energy-efficient dwellings, which allow less of that relatively unpolluted outside air indoors than older homes did. This trend also may expose children to higher concentrations of asthma-causing insect and rodent excrement. One theory is that heavy metals from automotive catalytic converters or materials used in radial tires are culprits.

Howling about industrial air pollution won't cure a single asthma case because air pollution isn't the culprit — something else is. Are the leaders of the Natural Resources Defense Council and other so-called environmentalists refighting a war they already won out of some need for personal gratification, or do they have a more sinister anti-industry agenda?

[Graybeard58]

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[luckystarmom]

Maybe lack of vitamin D as kids are spending more time inside and also using sunscreen when they are outside.

My daughter’s asthma escalated a ton when she was put on anti-seizure medication that strips out vitamin D.

Her twin sister has always had bad asthma, and I have it. However, my daughter with seizures had never really had a problem with it until she had been on seizure medication for a year. Of course that was also last year. She moved to a larger middle school, and we had H1N1 going around. Last year was a very tough year. It seemed like she was constantly sick. As soon as she would get off anti-biotics she would pick up another cold and it would go straight to her lungs. She spent from November-May only being well when she was on anti-biotics.

So far this year, she has not been on anti-biotics once. She’s on a lower dose of seizure medication, and we’ve upped her vitamin D supplements.

[rockinqsranch]

Good one. Right on. Thanks for the ping.

[justsaynomore]

I believe there is something to that. My son used to get one to two attacks a week during the winter. I started him on vitamin D two winters ago, and he had not had an attack since.

[headstamp 2]

Maybe the Republicans can knock down the stupid “Lead Abatement” regs for home improvement contractors also. Another ridiculous bureaucratic overreach from the idiots at the EPA.

[oh8eleven]

Maybe lack of vitamin D as kids are spending more time inside and also using sunscreen when they are outside.
Could very well be.
Vitamin D is also known as the "sunshine vitamin" and who's been preaching for decades that the sun was BAD for us?
Yeah, the gubmint.

[LaineyDee]

So what is causing the increase in asthma?

This study is a bit myopic in that it has tried to pinpoint just inhalants triggers. What about all the chemicals our FDA allows to be put in the food supply?

I've read several studies over the years on how gut-related issues are huge triggers for asthma and other reactive disorders such as eczema, psoriasis, etc. Definitely a skewed study for the purposes of EPA control....IMHO

[hinckley buzzard]

It has become very clear over the last thirty years that indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air. If asthma is related to air quality at all, a speculative and unproven assumption, then these air-nazis should be knocking down the doors of asthmatic children's homes and schools and letting in some clean outdoor air.

[sportutegrl]

If libs cared so much about asthmatic children, then why did they take the CFC’s out of asthma rescue inhalers, replacing them with much more expensive and less effective options?

[Cyman]

Since the 1970s, asthma cases have doubled while air-pollution levels have plummeted. Between 1980 and 2006, levels of fine particulate matter fell 40 percent; ozone, 20 percent; nitrous oxide, 37 percent; sulfur dioxide, 63 percent; carbon monoxide, 74 percent; and lead, 96 percent. The link between asthma and air pollution isn’t weak; it’s nonexistent.

So what is causing the increase in asthma? Childhood obesity is one prominent factor, easily documented. Another is outgassing from modern building materials and the emergence of energy-efficient dwellings, which allow less of that relatively unpolluted outside air indoors than older homes did. This trend also may expose children to higher concentrations of asthma-causing insect and rodent excrement. One theory is that heavy metals from automotive catalytic converters or materials used in radial tires are culprits. “

One other often overlooked culprit is the over diagnosis of childhood asthma. I can not tell you the amount of children that I see in my practice(I am not a Pediatrician)that claim to be a diagnosed asthmatic but when queried about the use of their inhalers, pills etc... they say that they have not used them or any asthma product in months to years.

[Osage Orange]

Asthma can also be a catch-all diagnosis.....

And real asthma can be diagnosed easier..with better testing by Physicians.

Stands to reason....more kids will be labeled, and or diagnosed Asthmatics.

[DakoKid]

Don’t forget smoking rates have dropped around 20% since then too.

[Uriah_lost]

Add to that over-prescribing of a number of meds and the attempts to keep our kids in bubble-wrapped lives. Antiseptic, clean and perfect. Its all a lie.

[Pining_4_TX]

There is a correlation between obesity and asthma, but that does not mean one causes the other.

I find it humorous that the environmental nuts pretend to care about asthmatics. They are the ones who have forced the new CFC-free inhalers on us, and these things are useless! I have not even refilled my presription for my inhaler, because it has no effect whatsoever on my asthma symptoms. Not only that, but the reformulated inhalers are considered to be a “new” medication (even though the active ingredient has not changed), so one cannot buy a generic. They are both expensive and ineffective! Yeah, these jerks really care about folks with asthma. BS.

[luckystarmom]

I’m careful about too much sun. My brother died of skin cancer when he was 48. However, with being careful of too much sun, you also have to worry about getting enough vitamin D.