When Irish flights are cancelled, asthmatics close your mouth!
While volcanic ash plumes over Ireland may have been an isolated
event in the past, this is no longer the situation. For how long
the Icelandic volcanoes roar into the atmosphere and cast a fine
dust cloud of silica covering northern Europe is impossible to
know. While the direct effect on flights is obvious, there might
be wider implications for children and adults with breathing
difficulties such as asthma. The word asthma originates from the
Greek word meaning panting. While the condition has been around
for a long time, it has increased exponentially in the past
twenty years. The condition affects more boys than girls during
childhood and more females than males during adulthood. Stress
is often a factor preceding late onset asthma. A popular
explanation explaining the increased incidence is the hygiene
hypothesis of lower exposure to infection during childhood,
which results from improved living standards. However,
challenging this hypothesis