There is a strange situation in New York City. In East Harlem, one of the districts of the city, a worryingly high level of 19 percent of five-year-olds has asthma. That’s according to a report from the New York City Department of Health. But just down the road in the Upper East Side, that rate drops to 6 percent. And while that figure is still troubling, it means that children living just a few blocks from those in East Harlem have a much lower risk of developing asthma.
The disparity seems very high, but why would that be so? The answer, according to experts, is cockroaches, combined with a number of other factors. East Harlem is a lower-income neighbourhood than Upper East Side, and cockroaches are disproportionately found in lower-income areas. This is generally because of the older buildings which give cockroaches more time and space to inhabit.
Cockroaches are known to carry proteins in their saliva, body parts and faeces that are a source of allergies. When these proteins become airborne they can be easily inhaled. This makes them allergens that can trigger the symptoms of asthma or cause an asthma attack. It’s also known that cockroach allergies are far more common in urban areas where they thrive.
However, cockroaches appear to be only part of the increasing asthma problem in East Harlem. The results of a study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology suggest that being exposed to a certain form of air pollution found in diesel exhaust increases the risk of developing cockroach allergies.
As urban areas are likely to have a high concentration of buses and other vehicles running on diesel engines it’s easy to see how the problem is self-perpetuating. The more children are exposed to the fumes, the more like they are to develop cockroach allergies. And those allergies in turn can cause asthma.
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