Dorchester-born blacks have higher rates of asthma than blacks born abroad
By adamg - Mon, 12/01/2008 - 8:48am.
The Globe reports on a study by researchers at Tufts and BU; one possible explanation: Americans are just too darn clean, so their kids' formative immune systems aren't exposed early on to substances that later on cause their immune systems to overreact.
Researcher Doug Brugge explains his findings in this NECN video from earlier this month:
Article abstract (you'll have to pay to read the whole thing).
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Doesnt pollution play into
Doesnt pollution play into ashtma as well? I would think that Dorchester would have more pollution from cars and other sources then most part of Africa where cars are less prevelant.
Difficult to Generalize
Less prevalent cars doesn't mean less pollution if those cars are pre-Euro 2 vehicles or two-stroke engines, etc. The former East Germany now has many more cars than pre-1989, but has lower levels of most traffic-related pollutants because the two-stroke and un-controlled four stroke vehicles were scrapped.
Unfortunately, the hygeine hypothesis has become a sort of butt-covering shorthand for "I don't have a frakking clue". It makes some sense in some contexts, but it is very difficult to compare the entire exposure picture from cockroach doots to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to particulate matter less than 2.5 microns, etc. The state of the research has gotten to the point that singular comparisons are really not very informative. Asthma is even more tricky because it involves an immune component and thus we toss various biological exposures in with chemical exposures on top of incredibly varied viral exposures in different places.
As somebody who has done indoor air quality and asthma research and now works with air pollution and public health policy, all I can say is "hmm ... interesting". I would be less likely to finger the hygeine hypothesis and more likely to point to infectious diseases of infancy which are associated with certain air pollution exposures (the exposure makes the babies more likely to get sick). These are diseases that frequently kill infants not living near an advanced hospital, but are associated with childhood asthma in Western countries because the kids survive them! But I'm really shooting from the hip on that one... drawing conclusions would require a huge study population and an extensive assessment of potential exposures, which is very expensive, and much of the data goes unanalyzed at that.
Diesel buses
Would it be interesting to see if rates decline now that the T is moving away from its traditional diesel buses? This map would seem to indicate Dorchester would have a high percentage of diesel buses, given how it only has one subway line (plus some service by diesel-powered commuter trains).
Diesel is one factor
Diesel buses - yes, that is a possibility if we are looking at Dorchester alone. But if we are comparing childhood and infant exposures in developing countries to the Dorchester situation, the diesel hypothesis tends to go "poof". The urbanized areas of developing countries are, on average, heavily polluted with diesel exhaust from cars, trucks, and buses. Diesel is the fuel of choice in much of the developing world, and the vehicles operate with far fewer controls to a far greater age than seen in developed countries. Furthermore, rich and poor alike in developing countries tend to live much closer to roadways and transport systems - typically uncontrolled diesel powered vehicles - than they do in the US. If the populations in question are coming from urban areas of Africa, Dorchester might be an improvement in the diesel exhaust category for many immigrants (people from the Carribean likely have lower exposures than Dorchester, however).
World AIDS Day HIV Testing
World AIDS Day HIV Testing
Monday, December 1, 2008
12:00PM to 8:00PM
Though we are usually closed on Mondays, on World AIDS Day, the MALE
Center is dedicated to honoring the day of observance by providing
free rapid HIV testing all day. Appointments are suggested but never
required for HIV testing
http://www.aac.org/site/PageServer?pagename=malecenter_resources_events
Hilarious
The story is talking about asthma in Dorchester and you break out World AIDS day. That is freakin' hilarious. Good thing it's been 22.3 years since AIDS was discovered so that this is something we can laugh at.
the zak's not making a joke.
I mean, I've been waiting for him to tell us some of his favorite jokes for a long time now, but that post definitely isn't one. He just posts snippets of things that he finds which are often only tangentially related to the subject at hand. For instance, anything involving libraries will get a comment about the problems he has with the Boston Public Library. Anything involving city politics will get a comment about obtaining stenographic records of City Council minutes, which are never in a format he is pleased with.
So here, I see we have a post involving asthma, a chronic disease, and Dorchester, which is near Boston. So he rooted around in his internal last.fm-esque Recommendation system and posted a World AIDS Day PSA with links to free testing in Boston.
He don't mean no harm by it, it's just how he's wired.