1 In 10 Canadian Kids Now Has Asthma - Incidence Up 400% In 20 Years

[hatrack]

TORONTO -- The rate of childhood asthma in Canada has soared fourfold over the past 20 years, to a level where more than one out of every 10 children is now diagnosed with the respiratory illness, says a report by North America's environmental watchdog agency.

"Asthma is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in Canadian children and is also a serious problem in adults," says the report, written in part by federal government researchers. It is the first study on the health of children in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

The data collected in the three countries show asthma to be prevalent across the continent. The report says the disease, immediately recognized by the wheezing and chest pain it causes, is "the most common chronic disease of childhood in North America." Based on population figures, the study's conclusions indicate that about one million children in Canada have or have had asthma.

The highest rate of asthma presented in the report was among Canadian boys aged 8 to 11, of whom a staggering 20 per cent were diagnosed with the disease in the late 1990s. In the United States, about 13 per cent of children had asthma at some point in their lives, according to figures compiled in 2003.

EDIT

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20060127/ASTHMA27/Front/Idx

[phantom power]

1. There's a visible layer of smog in Phoenix, pretty much every day.

We breath that crap every day, 24/7/365. My daughter has inhaled it every day of her young life. I imagine that it's more or less the same story in every metropolitan area.

[NMDemDist2]

3. yup

almost daily my DH says "We gotta get outa here, this city is trying to kill me."

and he's right......

[applegrove]

2. Canada gets all the smog from the northeast USA.

[Sven77]

4. GM foods bringing the resistance down

reducing the immune system

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Eehh, we'd *dream* of a 1 in 10 asthma rate in England

Asthma, eczema and hay fever are among the commonest chronic diseases of childhood. In 1996, 21 per cent of children aged 2 to 15 years had ever been diagnosed with asthma in England; 24 per cent with eczema; and nine per cent with hay fever.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget_print.asp?ID=722

Canadians today, they don't know they're born.