Question:
Im going to the dr on Thursday and I'm going to ask her this question, but I
thought I would throw this out to you guys and see what you think. There was a news report tonight that told of a public school that used to be a
factory, in which kids and teachers are getting sick. Supposedly the land the
school is on and surrounding area is poisoned, a "Class 2" EPA crisis. The
symptom reports are mostly headaches, rashes and asthma. My question is this - can a "normal" person with no asthma get asthma by
breathing toxic fumes? I thought you had to be genetically predisposed,
whether you had childhood or adult onset asthma. I didn't think that it
chronic asthma could be chemically induced.
Answer:
First, did the news report specifically say that folks who *never* had
asthma before have now developed asthma? It's more likely that these
kids and teachers already had the underlying inflammation of asthma
(maybe without knowing it), and the chemical exposure triggered acute
attacks. Even someone whose asthma is mild and well-controlled, might
have problems if he traveled to Mexico City on a day when the smog is at
its worst. Second, some chemicals, such as sulfur dioxide gas in sufficient
quantities, can cause bronchospasm even in normal non-asthmatic people.
Lots of people cough during bad Los Angeles smog or bad Mexico City
smog. But they don't have true asthma.
