Abstract
The recent advancement of medical knowlege and medical inspection techniques, together with the changes of air pollution both in quality and in quantity demand several alterations for the epidemiological study. This report relates to the problems to be solved concerning with the epidemiological study of chronic effects by air pollution, especially with the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, the influence on respiratory functions and the prevalence of asthma in school children.
Reasearch/study on the prevalence of the persistent cough and phlegm and that of chronic bronchitis in the grownups left the problem; difficulty for identifying any subject group with same exposure level in the past, and influence of the past SO2 contamination still lingering.
While research/study on the respiratory function of schoolchildren was an effectual method to obtain the influence of air pollution, the basic problem is left unsolved that the values themselves depend too much on measuring instruments.
Concerning with research/study on the prevalence of asthma in schoolchildren, mechanism in onset of asthma in such group shuld be detected, since the prevalence of asthma in the group without any allergic disposition (recognized by IgE value in serum) revealed considerably high as the value of air pollution level increased.
