From: Robina Suwol
Date: 02 Dec 2001
Time: 10:10:18
Remote Name: 64.216.20.176
By TAMMY WEBBER
The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) - Some children who appear in perfect health have measurable lung
damage from exposure to air pollution, researchers found, suggesting such damage
could lead to lung disease.
Past research has found that children living in polluted areas have higher rates
of lung diseases such as asthma. But a new study is the first to use X-ray
imaging to measure changes in children with no symptoms of lung problems, the
researchers said.
Chest X-rays of 241 children in Mexico City were compared with those of 19
children living in a small coastal town. Throughout the 20-month study, smog
levels in Mexico City exceeded U.S. air quality standards for more than four
hours a day on average. Particulate matter - tiny pieces of soot and other
materials in the air - also was above U.S. standards.
Researchers found 63 percent of the Mexico City children had excessive inflation
of both lungs, said Dr. Lynn Ansley Fordham, an associate professor of radiology
and chief of pediatric imaging at the University of North Carolina School of
Medicine.
In addition, 52 percent of the urban children had abnormal numbers of
interstitial markings - fine lines that could indicate inflammation along the
airways, Fordham said.
CT scans of 25 children with the most abnormal X-rays found 10 with mild
thickening of the walls of the bronchial airways, eight with air trapped in
their lungs and four with unusually prominent central airways. One child had a
lung nodule.
In the coastal town, one child had mild over-inflation of the lungs. The rest
had no damage.
Lung damage could be a precursor to problems such as pulmonary disease, but the
findings also might point to a reliable way to test children early, before lung
disease develops, Fordham said.
``X-rays are a relatively inexpensive, easy-to-obtain screening for children,''
said Fordham. ``You can find (problems) and do something for those kids.''
Fordham said some of the children might be helped by vitamins, better diet, and
staying inside when air pollution is at its peak.
She and Dr. Lilian Calderon-Garcidueana of the University of North Carolina and
the National Institute of Pediatrics in Mexico City presented the study
Wednesday at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting.
Joel Schwartz, an environmental epidemiologist at Harvard's School of Public
Health, said other research has indirectly linked air pollution with respiratory
ailments. But to find radiographic evidence of lung abnormalities in seemingly
healthy children ``is pretty unusual,'' he said.
The results ``are showing what we suspect - that there are chronic effects that
can be seen in the lung that would show up this early ... on X-ray,'' said
Schwartz, who was not involved in the study.
Some of the changes, such as airway thickening, might disappear if the children
moved to a less polluted area, ``but it would certainly take a long time to
reverse,'' Schwartz said.
Although Mexico City is more polluted than U.S. cities, the results can be
generalized to other polluted areas, Fordham said. She said a study on
euthanized dogs in Mexico found that those from moderately polluted areas -
similar to some areas of the United States - had thickening of the lungs'
lining, inflammation and particulate matter lodged in the lungs.
The findings might be more severe in dogs because of their poor diets, but ``we
presume the same things could be found in people,'' said Fordham, adding that
another study of children in a moderately polluted city is planned.
Fordham said it would be difficult to duplicate the study in the United States
because of the high rates of asthma and higher levels of indoor air pollution
from such things as carpet and glues, which could skew the results. It also was
easier to find Mexican children who had lived in the same neighborhood all their
lives.
On the Net:
American Lung Association: http://www.lungusa.org/
AP-NY-11-28-01 1115EST