City Tax on Cars Cut Pollution, Kids' Asthma Risk

TUESDAY, March 7, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A tax designed to reduce mid-city traffic in Stockholm, Sweden, was tied to a reduction in asthma attacks in children, a new study suggests.
"The key takeaways of this paper are that health gains can be realized through efforts to lower air pollution, and that we need to be patient in waiting for the complete picture to emerge," said study author Emilia Simeonova, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
After Stockholm introduced the "congestion tax" as an experiment in 2006 to discourage people from driving in the center of the city, traffic flow got better and air pollution levels fell by 5 to 10 percent. The tax was made into law in 2007.....

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Women suffer from asthma symptoms more frequently and more severely than men

Women suffer more frequently and more severely from pollen and food allergies and therefore also from asthma. Firstly, female sex hormones increase the risk and symptoms of asthma and allergies and, secondly, hormone preparations such as the contraceptive pill play a role. These factors should be given more consideration than was previously the case. Erika Jensen-Jarolim from MedUni Vienna's Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research stresses this point on the occasion of International Women's Day on 8 March.....

Read more here: medicalxpress.com

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Professional IPM no better in decreasing asthma in children than do-it-yourself mouse allergen reduction

The results of a new study reveal that a professional pest management intervention was no better in decreasing asthma symptoms in children allergic to mice than teaching families how to reduce the level of allergens shed by mice in the home on their own.
In a report of the study's findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on March 6, researchers compared professional pest management treatments plus education with education alone and found no significant differences in asthma symptoms or mouse allergen exposure between the two groups. Both groups, however, saw substantial reductions in mouse allergen levels and substantial improvements in asthma.....

Read more here: news-medical.net