Mosquito coil

Mosquito coil is efficient for mosquito repellent and consist of pyrethrins (Lukwa and
Chandiwana 1998). The coil is widely used for the reason of cheap as well as easy to use.
Prolonged exposure to mosquito coil is proven to induce asthma and persistent wheezing in
children according to study done by Liu et. al. 2003. However our study shows that there is
independently association between mosquito coil smoke exposure with asthma and persistent
wheeze. The p value is >0.05 and the data shows that 55.6% of mosquito coil user that have
asthma compared to 44.4% of user that are non-asthmatic patients. However, we found that
there is a study conducted by Azizi et. al. 1991 support that exposure to mosquito coil smoke
for at least three nights a week was not associated with asthma. This study was done in 1501
7 12 years old school children in Kuala Lumpur. There is also some restriction in our
research for the prevelance of asthma among paediatric patients due to small number of
sample size.
1. Azizi, B.H.O. and R.L. Henry, 1991. The effects of indoor environmental factors on
respiratory illness in primary school children in Kuala Lumpur. Int. J. Epidemiol., 20:
144-150.
2. Mosquito Coil Emissions and Health Implications Weili Liu,1 Junfeng
Zhang,2 Jamal H. Hashim,3 Juliana Jalaludin,4 Zailina Hashim,4 and
Bernard D. Goldstein5 Environmental Health Perspectives VOLUME 111 |
NUMBER 12 | September 2003
3. Fagbule D, Ekanem EE. 1994. Some environmental risk factors for
childhood asthma: a case-control study. Ann Trop Paediatr 14(1):1519

Aerosol Insecticide At Home

There are study done by Salome et. al. 2000 and Hernandez et. al. 2011 show that the
standard insecticide formulation caused significant effect toward asthma patients. Our data
shows there is contradiction to the study conducted which show that there is no significant
association between aerosol insecticides towards the prevalence of asthma by increasing
bronchial hyper-responsiveness. From the respondent that was interviewed, there was 53.1%
of asthma patients exposed to aerosol insecticide and 46.9% of non-asthma patients not
exposed to this insecticide. This lead to non-significant association between this two
variables. It is uncertain whether pesticide can cause asthma. The major limitation that lead to
this data are the outcome definition and the exposure assessment. In this study, the outcome
(asthma) was defined by self-report respiratory symptoms or by doctor diagnosis of diseases.
Next, the exposure assessment is also by self-reports. No biomarker has been used to measure
specific pesticide or active ingredient, insecticide concentration and the time of exposure. The
small size of this study also make it difficult to establish a significant result.

A. Hernndez, T. Parrn and R. Alarcn. 2011. Current Opinion in Allergy & Clinical
Immunology: April - Volume 11 - Issue 2 - p 9096
C.M. Salome, G.B. Marks, P. Savides, W. Xuan and A.J. Woolcock. 2006. The effect
of insecticide aerosols on lung function, airway responsiveness and symptoms in
asthmatic subjects. European Respiratory Journal. 16: 3843

Crowded Houses
Southeast Asian homes tend to be more crowded and consisted of more family members.
(Davies RJ, 1998). Crowded home environments allow other environmental factors to bring
their effects on susceptible subjects, including exposure to air pollutants, tobacco smoke, and
enhance allergic sensitization and increase (Von Mutius, 1994). However, our statistical
analysis had shown that 44.9% of respondents with asthma that sharing the
same beds with more than two persons whereas only 53.1% respondents with
asthma sharing their bed with two or less people. Although this is not statistically
significant because p value is not less than 0.05, but it shows some significant
trends that presence between this two. According to research conducted by Ones
et. al. 2006, the household size and sharing a bedroom were not significant risk
factors for asthma in their surveys which support our result.

1. Davies R.J., C. Rusznak . 1998. Allergen/irritant interaction- its role in sensitization

and allergic disease.Volume 53, Issue 4, Article first published online:

29 APR 2007
2. Von Mutius, E, Martinez, FD, Fritzsch, C, Nicolai, T, Reitmeir, P, and Thiermann.
1994. Skin test reactivity and number of siblings. BMJ ; 308: 692695
3. U. Ones1 , A. Akcay2 , Z. Tamay1 , N. Guler1 , M. Zencir3 Rising trend of
asthma prevalence among Turkish schoolchildren Allergy 2006: 61: 1448
1453
Air conditioning
Air conditioned room is reported to have lower ventilation rates compared to
natural ventilation room according to study by Sekhar, 2004. This study was
supported by another study that done by Spengler et. al. 1994 which reported
that air conditioning was appears to approach significant towards association
with asthma symptoms. Based on our study, it reveals that 54.2% of respondents
with asthma have air conditioning whereas only 45.8% respondents with asthma
have no air conditioning. As a result, p>0.05 which is not significant. According
to studies done Yang et al 1997, there were no associations of air conditioning
use with prevalence of asthma.

This study has some limitations that may influence the interpretation of the
results. The findings are based upon cross-sectional data and are subject to the
sampling and information bias, and problems relating to the lack of sequence in
time between symptoms and exposure. It is unlikely that sampling bias could
have influenced this study tremendously. The reasonably high response rate of

70.0% and random sampling method of the general population reduces this
possibility. Furthermore, it is unlikely that the findings are the result of a spurious
association that arose from consistent variations in medical practice across the
island, as the quality of medical practice tends to be uniform in this small island
republic. For information bias, parents of symptomatic children could be more
aware of potential hazardous environmental influences, which would lead to
preferential reporting of symptoms, and therefore, stronger associations with the
exposures of interest. This was unlikely because of 4 factors: 1) there is no
general awareness of potential role of dampness, mold and wall paper as a risk
factor for asthma and allergies by the Singapore public; 2) the study was
conducted among random samples of child care center children where no
specific concerns about home exposures were an issue; 3) partial validation of
the questionnaire exposure report via home inspection revealed moderate to
almost perfect agreement; 4) there was evidence of linear doseresponse trend
whereas bias in reporting is expected to affect this relationship