Eczema Risk Soars in Smog-Prone Areas, Experts Warn

United States: Research now shows that instances of the autoimmune skin disease eczema may be more common in the regions most affected by smog.

As it is known that rates of eczema, or atopic dermatitis, rise in tandem with industrialization, dirty air could be an intermediary, the team from Yale University posited.

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According to Gloria Chen, researchers led by Yale School of Medicine, “Showing that individuals in the United States who are exposed to particulate matter [in the air] are more likely to have eczema deepens our understanding of the important health implications of ambient air pollution,” US News reported.

“A group of inflammatory skin conditions that cause itchiness, dry skin, rashes, scaly patches, blisters and skin infections,” as the National Eczema Association added over 31 million Americans have skin disorders.

Eczema is a skin disease whose causes have not been fully ascertained though research has postulated that it results from a faulty immune system which produces a reaction to certain controllable factors.

To do so, the Yale team examined information from almost 287,000 patients from America and 12,700 of those had been diagnosed with eczema (4.4%).

They were presenting average local eczema figures against the Air Pollution Index of zip codes in the United States.

For every additional ten micrograms of fine particulate matter per square meter of air averaged in a zip code, the people’s risk for eczema was twice as high, the Yale group reported.

Even after other potential causes that the researchers considered – such as smoking – were taken into account, that risk assessment was being held.

The study could not establish the effect of one variable on the other; only correlations could be made. However, the team was quick to acknowledge similar observations, made in research that was conducted in such countries as Australia, Germany, and Taiwan among others.