Quote:
Originally Posted by kshe95girl
You're saying the rise in asthma among children is a lie?  |
I can speak to that.
Asthma is increasing, and in fact the US has the highest rate in the world, but not for the reasons you think.
I've mentioned this before, but about 6 years ago the UN did a study on child asthma in the world's most polluted cities, and then used US cities as comparison data (a sort of control group because US cities have better air quality).
The results of the study were exactly opposite of what was predicted/hypothesized. Children in the dirtiest most polluted cities had lower rates of asthma than children in US cities.
What is so different between a child living in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Seattle or Boston and a child living in Kiev (Ukraine), Mumbai (Bombay, India), Shanghai (China) or elsewhere?
Two things.
Children living in US cities are born and raised on wall-to-wall carpeting. Children outside of the US typically have no carpeting at all.
Even when there is carpeting, the carpeting is made of animal hair or natural plant fibers (like flaxen, linen, cotton etc).
US synthetic carpet fibers are made from oil (usually heavy or low end intermediate grade oil like West Texas Sour, East Texas Sour, California Heavy, Alaskan North Slope etc).
The other thing is central air/heat. US children are born and raised in a cocooned environment. It is common practice in other countries to open the windows every single day, even in Winter when the temperature is 12°F, for 1-2 hours. Americans do not do that. In Germany, the heating system is in the floor (hot water heats the tiles, the tiles retain heat) so carpeting is stupid, but every day you open the windows and throw the bed linen out to air. Same in Romania (except we use a
terra cotta instead of having heat in the floor).
It's been theorized that children need to be exposed to airborne particulate matter in order to develop "immunity" to asthma much in the same way that children exposed to other children in school helps develop their immunity to viral diseases.
That would be the great irony: your central heat/air systems with their fancy HEPA filters actually cause asthma, not prevent it.
Anyway, this study conducted by WHO was squelched and pulled from the UN web-site within a year of being published. I guess the US figured it would be harmful or damaging to the US carpet industry and the HVAC industry.
So I wouldn't dispute that US children have greater asthma rates, but I would dispute why they do, and outdoor air quality is not the issue. Having your child have their face buried in oil all the live-long day is probably not a good idea, even more so given the amount of oil you feed your child every day.
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