ONE IN TWO TAIWAN CHILDREN HAVE NASAL ALLERGIES, TOPS THE WORLD|研究:長期吸二手菸 孩童過敏鼻炎高5.7倍

Taiwan's children suffer from nasal allergies at the highest rate in the world. The National Health Research Institutes and Linkou Chang Geng Hospital cooperated in a nine-year research project and revealed that children in environments with secondhand smoke suffer from nasal allergies at 5.7 times the rate of others. Most people know that smoking is harmful to the body, resulting in lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses. Recent research shows that smoking not only pollutes the environment but also raises the risk of children suffering from nasal allergies. It was revealed that children living in environments with secondhand smoke have the highest risk of nasal allergies, 5.7 times higher than that of other children. ==YAO TSUNG-CHIEH Doctor of Rheumatology, Allergology, Pediatrics, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital== The smoke gets into the body through the nose, so the heaviest impact of cigarettes is on the nose, but so far we have placed relatively less emphasis on this. The National Health Research Institutes and Linkou Chang Geng Hospital cooperated in a long-term study of 1,300, 5 to 18 years old children revealing the link between secondhand smoke and nasal allergies. Results showed that the ratio of Taiwan children with nasal allergies went from 7.8 percent in 1985 to 53.1 percent in 2002. In just 17 years the ratio became that, one in two children suffered nasal allergies. Apart from genetic factors, nutrition, and pollution, secondhand smoke is also a major factor. It is worth noting that children who don't suffer from allergies are more severely affected by secondhand smoke. ==YAO TSUNG-CHIEH Doctor of Rheumatology, Allergology, Pediatrics, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital== What we do know is that secondhand smoke is more harmful to children who don't have allergies. This means that the harm that secondhand smoke can do does not have to be achieved through allergy reactions. The smoke itself is readily harmful to the nose. The research team found that half of Taiwan's children live in environments with secondhand smoke and the amount of nicotine in children's blood metabolites shows a positive correlation with nasal allergies. Thus the study calls on parents to take children out of secondhand smoke environments to lower the risk of nasal allergies. TRANSLATED BY：CLARE LEAR 台灣兒童過敏性鼻炎盛行率高居全球之冠！國家衛生研究院和林口長庚醫院合作，花了九年研究發現長期暴露在二手菸環境的孩童罹患過敏性鼻炎，會高出5.7倍，值得注意的是本身沒過敏的孩童受二手菸影響更嚴重。 不少人知道吸菸有害健康，可能引發肺癌等上呼吸道疾病，國內最新研究還發現，吸菸不僅造成空氣環境汙染，還可能增加兒童過敏性鼻炎的風險，尤其是暴露在二手菸環境的孩童，罹患鼻炎的風險會比一般孩子高出近5.7倍。 ==林口長庚兒童過敏氣喘風濕科醫師 姚宗杰== 菸進去是從鼻子進去 所以事實上 其實它對鼻子的影響是最直接的 但是也許過去來講這一塊 是大家比較忽略的地方 國家衛生研究院和林口長庚醫院合作，針對5到18歲、總共1300多名兒童，長期追蹤研究兒童二手菸暴露與鼻炎的關聯性，結果發現台灣兒童過敏性鼻炎盛行率，從民國74年的7.8%、到民國91年增加到53.1%，短短17年間，暴增到每兩個孩童就有一人是過敏性鼻炎，除了基因、飲食、空汙等環境因子，二手菸可能也是過敏原，值得注意的是本身沒過敏的孩童受二手菸影響更嚴重。 ==林口長庚兒童過敏氣喘風濕科醫師 姚宗杰== 顯然我們知道就是說 看起來它(二手菸)對這些 沒有過敏體質的小朋友危害更大 表示二手菸它引起鼻炎的反應 不用經過過敏的這個機轉 它(二手菸)自己本身就可以 獨立對鼻子造成這些傷害 研究團隊強調，台灣有半數兒童生活在二手菸環境中，而且孩童血液中尼古丁代謝物濃度高低，和鼻炎發生率呈現正相關，因此呼籲家長，最好讓孩子遠離二手菸環境，才能降低罹患鼻炎的風險。 記者 賴淑敏 蔣龍祥 台北報導