NEW YORK (HealthDay News)—Babies who breathe polluted air tend to have higher rates of peanut allergies as they get older, but the same is not true for immune-based conditions such as egg or peanut allergy. eczema, Australian researchers report.
Why the connection to peanut allergy in particular? That’s not yet clear, responded the study’s lead author, Dr. Diego López of the University of Melbourne.
“Air pollutants have an irritating and inflammatory effect that could increase the pro-allergic response of the immune system, which could trigger the development of food allergies,” said López, a researcher at the university’s School of Population and Global Health.
“But the underlying mechanisms of how air pollution increases the risk of peanut allergy, and why eczema and egg allergy are not affected in the same way, need to be further explored,” he said in a news release. from the Murdoch Pediatric Research Institute (MCRI).
The new research involved almost 5,300 children living in Melbourne who had been enrolled at the age of one and then followed up at ages 4, 6 and 10.
Lopez’s team was able to track local data on air pollution in whatever neighborhood the boy lived in. They specifically looked at two types of pollution: fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
As air pollution rates increased, so did the chances of a child developing a peanut allergy, the team found. Food allergies were diagnosed using a food challenge test, the “gold standard” for diagnosis.
“The increase in the prevalence of allergies has occurred at a time similar to the increase in urbanization, leading to the belief that environmental factors could be contributing to high rates of allergies,” noted the researcher and associate professor at MCRI Rachel Peters. She was not involved in the new research.
The findings will be published in the Oct. 23 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.
Important conclusion
Melbourne resident Eleanor Jenkin, whose 8-year-old daughter Mae has a severe egg allergy, believes the research is important for families dealing with any type of food allergy.
“Multiple factors are behind the allergy epidemic, and if higher levels of air pollution are affecting prevalence and persistence, then this is an important discovery,” he said in the MCRI news release. “We want the quality of life of children living with allergies to improve, as well as fewer children having to go through what Mae has experienced. The more we know about how to prevent allergies, the better.”
