According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, elementary school children exposed to the highest levels of air pollution fine particulate air pollution had significantly greater risk of asthma and uncontrolled/severe asthma.

The three-year study that found many of the 1,200 elementary school children who live near industrial sources of pollution were exposed to levels of outdoor air pollution above thresholds set by the US EPA and the World Health Organization and had high levels of asthma.

The children exposed to the highest levels of fine particles from industrial sources had 1.6 times the risk of an asthma diagnosis and nearly 5 times the rate of uncontrolled or severe asthma, after adjusting for demographics.

The asthma prevalence was 22.5%, more than double the US CDC’s national estimate of 8.6% for children and Pennsylvania Department of Health’s rate of 10.2%.

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