A study by the Mayo Clinic's Department of Community Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine and published in a recent edition of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, suggest that children living close to the intersection of major highways or railways have a 40–70% higher risk of developing childhood asthma.

The retrospective study looked at 3,970 people born between 1976 and 1979 in Rochester, Minn. Of the 1,947 subjects living in census tracts that faced intersections, 6.4% developed asthma, while only 4.5% of those living in census tracts not facing intersections developed asthma.

The group are currently examing the influence of neighborhood environment on other disease outcomes.


Young J. Juhn, Rui Qin, Sanghwa Urm, Slavica Katusic, Delfino Vargas-Chanes.
The influence of neighborhood environment on the incidence of childhood asthma: A propensity score approach.

Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2010; 125 (4): 838 DOI:

Courtesy of Science Daily

First Published in May 2010

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