Cats, dust and kids

Exposure to allergens like dust and cats does not have any strong influence in causing asthma.

Exposure to allergens like dust and cats does not have any strong influence in causing asthma and other allergies in children, a new research published in journal Thorax has revealed.

Contrary to previous theories which claimed that the risk of childhood respiratory allergies is linked to how strongly children are exposed to allergens in early life, the study conducted by researchers, from Imperial College School of Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute in London, has found that children are more likely to suffer from these conditions if their father had an inherited susceptibility to allergy or the child was a first born.

According to the Daily Mail, researchers led by Dr Paul Cullinan monitored 625 children from their birth until the age of five, and found that only 10 percent of the children were sensitised to house dust mite or cat fur by the age of five-and-a-half, and seven percent suffered associated wheezing.

They also collected house dust samples from the families' living room floors when the youngsters were eight-weeks-old and found no significant links between the levels of exposure to household allergens as measured in the dust samples, and sensitisation or frequency of wheezing.

"If exposure thresholds for sensitisation or asthma exist, then they appear to be exceedingly low.

The findings also make it improbable that reductions in domestic allergen exposure alone will have a major impact in reducing the incidence of these diseases in childhood.

Indeed, measures that reduce rather than eliminate exposure may even give rise to an increase in rates of sensitisation," claimed the researchers.