1. Introduction
Environmental conditions play an important role in the pathogenesis and
deterioration of chronic
diseases1. Respiratory
diseases is a major and increasingly global epidemic and has a great
impact on humans, especially
children2.
Respiratory disease is the
leading cause of death in
children3, and its
prevalence rate is still
increasing4. The lung of
children are still growing, the development and function of lung are
easily altered by early exposure to environmental risk factors. It is
easier to inhale more environmental risk factors through breathing,
because children have more physical activities than
adults5. Environmental
risk factors may have adverse effects on children’s respiratory system
and lead to a decline in lung
function6. Exposure to
traffic pollutants may cause children coughing, sneezing, asthma, and
decreased lung function7-9. Phthalates,
pesticides, and bisphenol-A (BPA) have been known as important risk
factors for development and exacerbation of asthma10. In addition,
environ ental tobacco smoke (ETS), air pollution and family environment
may be associated with respiratory
infection11-13. In
particular, ETS exposure may cause an increase in symptoms of
respiratory
disease14,15.
Most people spend most of their time at home, exposed to the risk
factors in their living
environment16,17.
However, there is still less research on the impact of
environmental risk factors in
living environment on respiratory diseases. We examined associations
between environmental risk factors in living environment and children’s
respiratory health, as assessed by questionnaire and Pulmonary function
measurements, in a cross-sectional study of a predominantly Chinese
community in Jilin Province of China.