Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 May;143(5):1702-1710.
doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2019.02.018. Epub 2019 Feb 28.

Impact of weather and climate change with indoor and outdoor air quality in asthma: A Work Group Report of the AAAAI Environmental Exposure and Respiratory Health Committee

Jill A Poole  1 , Charles S Barnes  2 , Jeffrey G Demain  3 , Jonathan A Bernstein  4 , Mahesh A Padukudru  5 , William J Sheehan  6 , Guillermo Guidos Fogelbach  7 , James Wedner  8 , Rosa Codina  9 , Estelle Levetin  10 , John R Cohn  11 , Steve Kagen  12 , Jay M Portnoy  13 , Andre E Nel  14
Affiliations
Review

Impact of weather and climate change with indoor and outdoor air quality in asthma: A Work Group Report of the AAAAI Environmental Exposure and Respiratory Health Committee

Jill A Poole et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2019 May.

Abstract

Weather and climate change are constant and ever-changing processes that affect allergy and asthma. The purpose of this report is to provide information since the last climate change review with a focus on asthmatic disease. PubMed and Internet searches for topics included climate and weather change, air pollution, particulates, greenhouse gasses, traffic, insect habitat, and mitigation in addition to references contributed by the individual authors. Changes in patterns of outdoor aeroallergens caused by increasing temperatures and amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are major factors linked to increased duration of pollen seasons, increased pollen production, and possibly increased allergenicity of pollen. Indoor air pollution threats anticipated from climate changes include microbial and mold growth secondary to flooding, resulting in displacement of persons and need for respiratory protection of exposed workers. Air pollution from indoor burning of mosquito repellants is a potential anticipatory result of an increase in habitat regions. Air pollution from fossil fuel burning and traffic-related emissions can alter respiratory defense mechanisms and work synergistically with specific allergens to enhance immunogenicity to worsen asthma in susceptible subjects. Community efforts can significantly reduce air pollution, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emission and improving air quality. The allergist's approach to weather pattern changes should be integrated and anticipatory to protect at-risk patients.

Keywords: Weather; allergy; asthma; climate; pollen; pollution.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure of interest: Intellectual property developed by AN and others was licensed to Westwood Bioscience by the Regents of the Univertity of California. AN is co-founder, equity holder, and SAB chair of Westwood Bioscience, Inc. All others authors confirm that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose. This report is submitted by the AAAAI EERH Working Group and has been approved by the AAAAI Board of Directors.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Overview figure summarizing impact of weather and climate change with indoor and outdoor air quality in asthma. Fungus on indoor home wall image following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, 2005, and image of pollen releasing content due to osmotic stress (Amaranthus retroflexus releasing starch granules) are courtesy of Rosa Codina.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Shaposhnikov D, Revich B, Bellander T, Bedada GB, Bottai M, Kharkova T, et al. Mortality related to air pollution with the moscow heat wave and wildfire of 2010. Epidemiology. 2014. May;25(3):359–64. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mazdiyasni O, AghaKouchak A, Davis SJ, Madadgar S, Mehran A, Ragno E, et al. Increasing probability of mortality during indian heat waves. Sci Adv. 2017. Jun 7;3(6):e1700066. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mertz O, Halsnaes K, Olesen JE, Rasmussen K. Adaptation to climate change in developing countries. Environ Manage. 2009. May;43(5):743–52. - PubMed
    1. Long SP, Ainsworth EA, Leakey AD, Nosberger J, Ort DR. Food for thought: Lower-than-expected crop yield stimulation with rising CO2 concentrations. Science. 2006. Jun 30;312(5782):1918–21. - PubMed
    1. Cai C, Yin X, He S, Jiang W, Si C, Struik PC, et al. Responses of wheat and rice to factorial combinations of ambient and elevated CO2 and temperature in FACE experiments. Glob Chang Biol. 2016. Feb;22(2):856–74. - PubMed