NEW YORK, Nov 30, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Infant exposure to metals from
residential heating oil combustion and diesel emissions are linked to
respiratory symptoms, U.S. researchers found.
Researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health compared pollutant levels
with respiratory symptoms of children between birth and age 2 living in Northern
Manhattan and in the South Bronx.
Senior investigator Dr. Rachel L. Miller of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia
University Medical Center and co-deputy director of at the Mailman School of
Public Health and colleagues found the airborne metals nickel and vanadium, were
risk factors for wheezing in young children.
Residual oil combustion for heating is a major source in New York City of these
metals. Elemental carbon, in diesel exhaust, was associated with increased
frequency of coughing only during cold and flu season -- September through
April, the researchers said.
"It appears that exposure to ambient metals and diesel-exhaust particles in our
air may lead to several respiratory symptoms for young children living in urban
areas," Miller said in a statement.
The findings are scheduled to be published in the American Journal of
Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in December.
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