The Asthma Epidemic: Unraveling a Mystery

New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the nation, is an interesting study of epidemic asthma rates across the United States. Asthma rates have climbed 75% in the United States since 1980 and almost doubled among children. Officially, 20 million Americans suffer from asthma, one third of them under age 18. In the city of Passaic, New Jersey, 22% of the children are suffering from Asthma, nearly three times the national average. Yet, fifty miles west of Passaic, in a bucolic town named Belvidere, asthma rates have soared. It has been a mystery to scientists.

Most asthma attacks are allergic reactions. The body protects itself from what it sees as a foreign invader. Something like stray particles of smoke from a nuclear plant, or a bit of rat droppings, finds its way into the air passages. An overeager immune system counterattacks, flooding the lungs with antibodies. The immune response swells the lungs, narrowing tunnels through which oxygen reaches blood vessels. Mucus clogs the remaining air spaces, the respiratory system seizes.

While scientists know what triggers asthma, such as pollution, dust and mold, the reason why people develop asthma remains unclear. Still, there is evidence that youngsters growing up in smoggy cities are three times as likely to develop asthma as other children. This was the conclusion of an 11 year old University of Southern California study tracking thousands of youngsters in nearby cities. Later, USC also reported that the lungs of children in more polluted areas grow more slowly and move air less efficiently.

On the other hand, as Beijing, China continues to industrialize, only 8% of school children have asthma, according to Noreen Clark, dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. By contrast, the air is cleaner and people smoke less in Detroit, yet 20% of the city’s students have asthma.

The answer may lie in the fact that while suburbs may not have the belching factories and smoggy interstates common to urban areas, urban pollution eventually drifts outside city limits. This may explain why Belvidere, New Jersey, located on the Delaware River, is experiencing so much asthma. A large power plant across the river is belching sulfur dioxide on the prevailing westerly winds. There are other, huge plants in Pennsylvania whose emissions can reach Belvidere.

Whatever the specific causes of asthma, people need to know whether they have it, or other respiratory conditions. Shortness of breath, wheezing, chest pain or tightness; coughing, especially at night; sputum production; excessively rapid breathing or gasping; exhaustion; insomnia due to shortness of breath; or intolerance to the smell of chemicals may all be signs of asthma. You need to see your doctor with any of these symptoms and get a formal diagnosis.

(Summarized from THE RECORD, Hackensack, NJ; copyright Knight-Ridder Newspapers: Distributed by Knight-Ridder / Tribune Information Services.)