Your letters: Every child has the right to clean air

Last week we again received scores of letters from readers on the subject of asthma. Here is a selection. And please keep on writing to us.

Last week we again received scores of letters from readers on the subject of asthma. Here is a selection. And please keep on writing to us.

My 10-year-old niece died from an asthma attack at the beginning of November. She was not ill and had been playing happily outside with her cousins just before she died. In The Independent on 12 December, a Pollution Watch report noted that the the still air had allowed pollutants to build up and there were widespread pollution episodes around the first weekend of the month. There has to be a way of making it safe for children to breathe. This is a basic human right. Losing the convenience of driving door to door might be a price we have to pay

Claire Knott, Newbury, Berkshire

You appear to be against petrol-powered vehicles and in favour of hydrogen power. May I point out that hydrogen does not naturally occur in its free state. It is most readily obtained by electrolysis of water. Where does the electricity come from? From power stations burning coal or oil (if you ban nuclear).

We burn coal and oil to convert to electricity at 30 per cent efficiency to burn the hydrogen at 30 per cent efficiency. This actually creates three times more pollution – it just creates it in a different place.

John Upex, Harrogate, Yorkshire

As a non car owner who does a great deal of walking I would like to see some action against drivers who park and leave their engines running. I feel that this should be a bookable offence.

Brenda Sultan, Manchester

Thank you for so visibly publicising the asthma issue in England. I am working on a campaign to get New Jersey in the US to adopt California's auto emission standards, which include requirements for introducing extremely low and zero emission vehicles. We are plagued with the same problems over here, with autos being one of the main culprits.

An associated issue is the cancer risk from breathing combustion-related particulate matter. A study just out in the Journal of the American Medical Association links cancer and these chemicals much more conclusively than in the past. The danger people living in heavily polluted metropolitan areas face appears to be comparable to that of living with a smoker.

Travis Madsen, New Jersey Public Interest, Research Group

We moved from the London area to Somerset when I was 25. I developed hay fever when I was 35. Five years later. soon after I began working close to stone quarries, I developed asthma. Although as a child I lived in London and remember the smog, I did not suffer from any respiratory problems.

Kathy Smith, Glastonbury, Somerset

If there's one thing I've learnt from living in Italy, it's that carpets are unhygenic, harbouring dust and dirt that no amount of hoovering can remove. As the father of a young son, I never hear anyone talk about the dangers of asthma, even if Italian towns are just as polluted as those in Britain. Carpets are rare here, as are children with inhalers.

Chris Rovai, by email

There are other triggers than polluted air for this disease, including additives found in food and drinks, in particular the preservative sodium metabisulphite E223, which even the Government recognises can trigger severe asthmatic reactions in susceptible people. Our organisation is calling for products containing this and other known asthma triggers to at least carry a health warning. Further information is available on our website, www.additivesout.org.uk.

Geoff Brewer, Additives Survivors' Network, Devizes, Wiltshire

Has anyone done any research into washing powders etc? Half a century ago, my mother washed our sheets in a soap powder. Now we use a mixture of chemicals to get bedding clean, then add another cocktail of chemicals to make everything softer. After this we expect children to sleep in this bedding for 10 or 12 hours at a time breathing in who knows what. Am I alone in wondering if this is a factor in triggering asthma in the first place?

Janet Pearson, London Colney, Hertfordshire

I was diagnosed with asthma in 1989 in Stockport, used three sorts of drugs and inhalers until I moved to London, went to a chest clinic, saw an excellent asthma clinic nurse, and have now been told I don't have asthma at all, never did, andhave a regime of exercise and physio and feel much better.

Steve Middleton, Beckton, London E6

Three months ago I heard about Buteyko, a programme of breathing exercises for asthmatics. Since I began 12 weeks ago I have only needed to use my Ventolin inhaler six times in total instead of the four times a day (often more) that I have used it for the past 25 years!!! I used to feel that a day without my inhaler would mean hospitalisation; two days and I would be dead! Now if I get breathless I no longer use my Ventolin as I am able to restore my breathing by using the Buteyko exercises. This major change in my asthma management is a revelation. I feel in control of my breathing and can see a way forward to increasing health. I would encourage everyone with asthma to contact a Buteyko practitioner. The website is www.buteykohealth.co.uk.

Barbara King, Windsor, Berkshire