Adults who suffer from asthma may be negatively affected by both street smog and wood smoke, according to a study from researchers at the School of Population Health at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Researchers reviewed health records from 1,383 44-year old adults as part of the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study. They found that those adults who were exposed to exhaust reported an 80 percent increase in their symptoms, while those exposed to wood smoke reported an 11 percent increase.
"Our study also revealed a connection between the inhalation of wood smoke exposure and asthma severity and that the use of wood for heating is detrimental to health in communities such as Tasmania where use of wood burning is common," said lead researcher John Burgess. "Clean burning practices and the replacement of old polluting wood stoves by new ones are likely to minimise both indoor and outdoor wood smoke pollution and improve people's health."
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