Asthma linked to urban school grounds
Eva Colless appears to be a fit and healthy 16-year-old student. Although bright eyed and glowing, she has been suffering from asthma her whole life. Ms Colless described her childhood in Ultimo as a series of painful asthma attacks.
“I can’t breathe. It’s really scary – you’re not really sure what’s going to happen. Especially when the Ventolin doesn’t go in properly. You have to breathe it in and hold your breath,” she said.
Ms Colless attended Forest Lodge Public School which is situated near Bridge Rd and Ross St in Glebe. “It was pretty congested – always really packed, lots of cars, lots of trucks.”
In a study released last month, the American Thoracic Society (ATS) found that a total of 1.4 million cases per year could be defined as Work-Related Asthma, linking the pollutants of the workplace environment to the possible cause of the Asthma.
Dr Peter Rickwood of the University of Technology Sydney explained that primary schools located in built up areas were in serious risk of causing health problems for young children.
In his 2009 study, the Sydney region was singled out as having the highest level of exposure to pollutants, increasing the overall likelihood of childhood hospitalisation.
He said that this was to be expected, due to the density of traffic and workplace institutions.
“Schools in this region are on more valuable land and as a consequence, school blocks are smaller and more heavily developed.”
Areas near the city centre devote more land to roads to cater for higher volumes of traffic.
“The combination of high-traffic volume and proximity to roads results in higher exposure levels for schools located close to the city centre.”
Ms Colless said she was heavily dependent on asthma medication as a child and still carries her puffer around in case of an asthma attack.
“I have to take it everywhere I go. When I was in pre-school I used to have to take a nebulizer every single day. It’s like a stronger version of asthma medication,” she said. “It’s a facemask… like a blue box and you put in these nebules … and it turns into a mist and you breathe it in. Like an air purifier.”
Asthma medication can be costly yet there has been limited research done on the links between pollution and childhood asthma.
Dr Rickwood said: “We need to investigate the concentration of pollution at the classroom level, and locate classrooms further away from pollution – based on topographic features and weather patterns. Ventilation should also be looked into. Further study is needed.”
By Steph Nash
