Washington, August 02 (ANI): Researchers have suggested that air cleaners could play an important role in easing asthma symptoms in children who live with smokers.
A Johns Hopkins Children's Center study of Baltimore City children who have asthma and live with smokers shows that indoor air cleaners can greatly reduce household air pollution and lower the rates of daytime asthma symptoms to those achieved with certain anti-inflammatory asthma drugs.
The researchers have warned that although air cleaners improved the overall air quality in homes, they did not reduce air nicotine levels and did not counter all ill effects of second-hand smoke.
"Air cleaners appear to be a an excellent partial solution to improving air quality in homes of children living with a smoker but should not be viewed as a substitute for a smoke-free environment," said lead investigator Arlene Butz, Sc.D., M.S.N., C.P.N.P., an asthma specialist at Johns Hopkins Children's and professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
For the study, researchers followed for six months 115 children, ages 6 to 12 years, who lived in homes where one or more caregivers smoked. Each one of 41 households received two free-standing air cleaners plugged into the bedroom and living room.
The study found that children living in homes with air cleaners had considerably more days without coughing, wheezing or difficulty breathing compared with children living in homes without air cleaners.
"Our findings show a clear link between improved asthma symptoms and the use of air cleaners, providing further evidence that air cleaners could play an important role in the treatment of children with asthma," said co-investigator Patrick Breysse, Ph.D., professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Childhood Asthma in the Urban Environment.
The study has been detailed in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. (ANI)
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