No link to air toxics in pediatric asthma prevalence

medwireNews: A nationwide US study has found that early exposure to ambient air toxics does not associate with the prevalence of asthma in young children.
The results are somewhat surprising, given that air toxics – a list of 187 pollutants deemed hazardous to human health in the 1990 US Clean Air Act Amendments – have been linked to asthma exacerbations in some previous studies. Additionally, the six criteria pollutants have been shown to strongly correlate with prevalent asthma......

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US Asthma Sufferers Coughing Up More Cash

(Newser) – The New York Times continues its "US health care costs are way higher than the rest of the world" series (see previously here and here) with a look at the most common chronic disease in America: asthma. According to the Times, it's becoming an increasingly pricey affliction to have in this country, even for those with health care. One steroid inhaler that costs $175 here costs $20 in Britain—and is given out free to asthma sufferers. A prescription for one nasal spray costs Americans up to $250 a month, but Europeans get it for $7 over the counter......

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TV and asthma risk

“Children who spend more than two hours a day in front of the television in early childhood are twice as likely to develop asthma as those out playing,” The Daily Telegraph reported. The newspaper said that scientists who carried out the study believe it to be the first suggested link between the condition and a “couch potato lifestyle at a young age”......

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