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Children risk more than accidents from traffic
New German research has shown that children living close to busy roads have up to 50% more chance of contracting allergic diseases.
Researchers from Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen (the German Research Centre for Environmental Health) conducted a longitudinal study among 3061 children from Munich tracking them from birth to the age of six.
Part of the analysis involved the distance of the child’s home from a busy street, and computer models of air pollution for the residential district.
According to Dr Joachim Heinrich who led the study, children who live less than 50 metres from a main road were between "1% and 50%" more likely to contract asthmatic bronchitis, hay fever, eczema and allergic sensitisation than children who lived away from main roads.
The further a child lived from a busy street, the less risk they faced.
