Air Pollution and Asthma - A Link Considered

The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) has published on their new website, a statement on the question:

“Does Outdoor Air Pollution Cause Asthma?”

The statement, with its supporting papers, considers the suggestion that exposure to outdoor air pollutants might be a primary cause of asthma. COMEAP, in an earlier report, published in 1995,1 concluded that exposure to outdoor air pollutants may play a part in triggering asthma attacks in people who already have the condition. The recent statement released updates this earlier work and also looks at whether air pollution contributes to the development of asthma in people who have previously not suffered from the disease. It concludes that it is unlikely that exposure to outdoor air pollutants causes asthma in the general population. However, it is possible that in a small group of those who suffer from asthma, who also live near busy roads, and are exposed to traffic generated air pollutants, largely from trucks, outdoor air polutants may have played a small part in causing their disease.
There remains a need for further research, particularly epidemiological (human) studies, to understand why air pollutants might play a part in causing asthma in some individuals in the population but not in others.

1 Department of Health. (1995) Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants. Air Pollution and Asthma. London: HMSO. Air Pollution and Asthma. London: HMSO.