Cincinnati Childhood Allergy & Air Pollution Study

The University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine is conducting the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study (CCAAPS). Allergic disorders affect over 40 million children, resulting in two million missed school days and costing society more than $10 billion/year. As you have probably heard, allergies and asthma are on the rise in children living in our area. Ohio ranks fifth for the nation in miles of federal highways and when adjusted by square miles of land area, ranks third (BTS 1997). The concern is that children residing near interstate highways are at potentially high risk for exposures to truck emissions and resultant atopic respiratory disorders.

We are studying the environmental factors that may be placing children at increased risk of developing allergies and/or asthma. The purpose of this study is to understand how air pollution in our city and exposure to normal house dust and pollen can cause allergies, hay fever and asthma in some children and not in others.

All women who gave birth between October 2001 and July 2003 in the Greater Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky area were identified from public information available on birth certificate records. The goal of the study is to determine if infants who are exposed to DEP via truck exhaust are at an increased risk for atopy and atopic respiratory disorders and to determine if this effect is magnified in a genetically at risk population.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a U.S. federal agency has provided the funding for this study.