Prevalence of asthma and related factors in primary school children in an industrial part of England.

In the UK around 10-12% of schoolchildren and around 6-10% of adults have asthma. In any year, at least one in 10 school children will experience symptoms of wheezing. Ci- garette smoke is a major respiratory irritant and damp and mould in homes can precipitate asthma.' Recently, the association between air pollution and respiratory disease has become topical. The pollutants associated most fre- quently with respiratory health problems are sulphur dioxide (SO2 -produced during the burning of fossil fuels and from car exhausts),2 ozone, and small particulates.3 An association between levels of traffic pollutants, traffic den- sity, and increased levels of childhood asthma has been shown.