4. Discussion
We found that a garbage station, noise or heating company in 100m around
the home is the risk factor of
respiratory diseases in primary
school students. Additionally, lung function measures decreased among
children who lived in homes with a garbage station and noise within 100
meters. The respiratory tract irritant gases can be produced by the
fermentation of
garbage18-20, the
combustion of the garbage can cause a higher mutagenicity and polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) contents in the
air21. PAH compromises
the normal developmental process of respiratory airways and mutagenicity
can activates the activity of PAH, they are associated with depressed
lung function in children22,23.
Similarly, The inhalable particulate matter (IPM) produced by the
burning fuel of the heating company is stronger associated with
respiratory
diseases24-26. Exposure
to noise facilitates diseases, children who have been exposed to traffic
noise and air pollution for a long time may have more adverse health
effects than exposure to air pollution alone27. In our study, noise
is a risk factor for respiratory diseases, and the reason may be that
stress is a co-factor.
The analysis of the family environment showed that purchase furniture
within a year, passive smoking, anophelifuge and disinfectant may also
cause respiratory diseases in primary school students, and passive
smoking was associated with lower FVC and FEV1.
Hazardous respiratory effects can be produced in the furniture
production, the cough and short breath of the furniture decoration
students were obviously higher than that of the control
group28. In the short
period of purchase of furniture hazardous respiratory effects still
exist, the incidence of respiratory diseases was increased while buying
new furniture 29.
Passive smoking is known as a risk factor for lung
cancer30,31.
The results of our study suggested that passive smoking also changes
lung function. Many studies have reported that humidifier
disinfectants(HDs) independently increased the risk of acute lobar
pneumonia and asthma in
children32-34, our
study added to the evidence that disinfectants are harmful to the
respiratory system. People rarely think of anophelifuge when it comes to
respiratory disease, which may be caused by the lack of direct study of
anophelifuge. Our research made up for this and showed that anophelifuge
is a risk factor for respiratory diseases.
Although the distance from home to main traffic road, the frequency of
opening windows in winter and the main fuel for cooking in winter are
not the factors affecting the respiratory disease in our study, they may
cause changes in the lung function. Close to the main traffic road may
cause FVC decline and low frequency of opening windows in winter may
cause decline in V25. Other studies have also reported
the effect of distance from home to main traffic road on lung function35-37. Additionally, we
found that comparing with the use of electric power, liquefied gas and
pipeline gas, children in families with liquid gas have decreased lung
function measures.
Overall, our study suggested that the environmental risk factor can be
assessed by questionnaire to determine their impact on the respiratory
system. Appropriate reduction or elimination of these environmental risk
factors could help reduce the effect of this
risk38,39.
Therefore, closely attention should be paid to these environmental risk
factors to protect the health of respiratory system. Some limitations
still in our study: (1) Environmental risk factors are determined by
questionnaire rather than on-site exposure assessment. (2) This is a
cross-sectional study with the limitations of cross-sectional study. (3)
There may be some residual miscellaneous factors that have not been
obtained through the questionnaire. Further studies for these additional
risk factor with detailed exposure assessment are needed.