....shows for the first time that occasional exposure to the air  pollutant ozone (the main substance in smog) can change how the  lungs of young rhesus monkeys develop, and can lead to a disease  similar to childhood asthma in humans.

"We have the first real monkey model of human asthma here," says Dallas Hyde, co-investigator and interim director of the CRPRC. "What we are seeing is quite disturbing, as we would not have assumed these levels (of ozone) would change lung development".

ALBERT F. ROBBINS, D.O., M.S.P.H., F.A.A.E.M.
Board Certified: Preventive Medicine/Occupational - Environmental Medicine

ROBBINS' ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE CENTER

One Reason for the Allergy Explosion and the Increase in Asthma

What is most sad ... about the allergy explosion and the rise in asthma in modern nations ... is that allergic individuals are not properly warned about personal exposures that aggravate the allergies and that are generally "masked" or not suspected! The patient doesn't know that his/her personal care products are affecting him/her until he/she unmasks or avoids these exposures.

Remember that these allergic individuals are "hypersensitive" which means that they are reactive to a far lower level of air pollutant exposure that the general population. They are not aware that their own personal care products increase their reactivity.

Couple that hypersensitivity with the current fact that most of us are exposed to a wide number of VOCs ( volatile organic compounds) (chemical smells or gases such as perfume, fragrance, aerosol sprays, skin lotions, colognes, polishes, smelly chemical cleaning products, fabric softeners, dry cleaning fluids, scented detergents and soaps) that we sometimes carry with us all day long on our skin, hair, clothing and even in our handbags and autos.

Adding insult to injury, the allergic patient is not properly warned to meticulously avoid many of these chemical irritant products by their own physicians. This then leads to a need for more medications to stabilize the allergic individual for long periods of time and the risk of progression of the allergic disease as well as the risk of developing side effects from the medications.

To add more insult to injury, doctors and nurses who don't understand the dilemma of the "chemically hypersensitive," contribute to the problem by labeling those allergic people who avoid aggravating chemical exposures as "psychiatric cases" and by labeling physicians like myself who warn the allergic to avoid certain chemical exposures as "quacks."

Even more difficult ... once the allergic patient begins to help himself by choosing the correct hypoallergenic fragrance free products and environmental controls is convincing family and friends not to make them sick by bringing them around obnoxious chemical exposures.

For these reasons, I believe that I have a tremendous responsibility to warn my patients and other allergic individuals of obvious neglect by most physicians to warn patients about proper environmental controls in addressing allergic diseases. There is too much emphasis on medication to control symptoms and not enough emphasis on prevention of allergic reactions.

The May 8th issue of US News & World Report has an article Allergy Epidemic ... and they do not even hint at the chemicals we must all inhale ... let alone, absorb. HOMEPAGE

Cord Serum Immunoglobulin E Related to the Environmental

Contamination of Human Placentas with Organochlorine Compounds

Abstract:

Allergic diseases are on the rise in both prevalence and severity, especially in industrialized countries.

The process of allergic sensitization needs an understanding of the role environmental factors play in its development. In addition to traditionally considered air pollutants, various persistent organochlorine pollutants, which accumulate in the human body over a lifetime via food intake, are toxic in humans.

Placental contamination by chemicals may act as a biologic marker for the exposure of the mother or for the fetus via transplacental transfer....................

. Environ Health Perspect 107:895-899 (1999). [Online 12 October 1999]

Blood Test, you may visit the ImmunoCAP website at  http://www.isitallergy.com .