Concerns
rise about allergy-related asthma
More children could wind up in hospital emergency rooms suffering from allergy-induced asthma if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and cause longer oak pollen seasons, according to a new study.
The
new research finds that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase
through the end of this century, the oak pollen season in some areas could
extend by up to eight days.
People with oak pollen allergies, particularly
children, will have longer exposure to pollen that can induce allergic asthma.
That could increase the associated hospital emergency room visits for allergic
asthma by 10 percent in the Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast combined, the new
study finds.
Allergic asthma associated with oak pollen sends more than 20,000 people to emergency rooms every year, and the increase in pollen could result in a 10 percent increase in hospital ER visits by 2090, according to the study’s authors.
These
additional ER visits would add an estimated $10.4 million to the $346.2 million
cost that would be expected under baseline conditions through 2090, according
to the new study published
in GeoHealth, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.
“We
found that the severe climate change scenario had a substantial impact on
public health,” said Susan Anenberg, an environmental scientist at
Environmental Health Analytics, LLC, in Washington, D.C., and lead author of
the new study.
The
study is part of a growing area of research on the health impacts of climate
change and the economic burden to individuals. Previous research has already
shown that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has caused ragweed,
another strong allergen, to produce higher concentrations of pollen, according
to the study’s authors.
The
new study could help doctors anticipate changes in allergic asthma as the
climate changes, said Samantha Ahdoot, a pediatrician in Alexandria, Virginia,
and assistant professor of pediatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University
School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.
“I
would hope that this research would help the public and policymakers to
understand that changes that occur in the environment, whether it is plant life
or climate, trickle down and ultimately affect the health of people,” she said.
In
the new study, Anenberg and her colleagues calculated the number of emergency
room visits for allergic asthma across the Southeast, Midwest, and Northeast
today and in the future using observed relationships between oak pollen and
asthma ER visits in Atlanta, Cincinnati, and New York City.
They
found that there were 21,200 oak pollen-related allergic asthma ER visits in
2010. Of those visits, 70 percent were children under the age of 18, indicating
that children may be more vulnerable to climate change-related health impacts,
according to Anenberg.
The
study’s authors used climate models and known relationships between
temperature, precipitation, and oak pollen to estimate the oak pollen season
length under both a moderate climate change scenario and a severe climate
change scenario.
Combining
the emergency room visit and climate model information, the study’s authors
found that the most severe climate change scenario would increase ER visits in
the three regions by 5 percent in 2050 and by 10 percent in 2090.
Under a
moderate climate change scenario, the number of visits would only increase by 4
percent, avoiding more than half of the emergency incidents in the severe
scenario, the study found.
“The
impact of oak pollen on human health in the United States is extensive and
likely worsening over time with climate change,” Anenberg said. “Our results
could be underestimating a much bigger problem, since environmental changes
could also affect other pollen types and other health outcomes.”
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