Funding for home heating will reduce asthma

Funding for better home heating will reduce childhood asthma, says Asthma Foundation

Media Release Wednesday 2 May

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation is asking Government to put in place incentives for people to convert to approved forms of heating. The call comes after a study found children who had asthma and who lived in properly heated homes reported less coughing and wheezing, fewer episodes of cold and flu, less time off school and fewer visits to the GP.

The study was carried out by the University of Otago's Wellington-based He Kainga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme, with assistance from Contact Energy. Its findings included that installing more effective and less polluting heaters in the homes of children with asthma improved the health of those children and their families. The study was carried out in five communities: the Hutt Valley, Porirua, Christchurch, Dunedin and Bluff.

The findings coincide with the Asthma Foundation's annual fundraising Balloon Day on Saturday 5 May, which seeks to raise public awareness of childhood asthma issues.

Asthma and Respiratory Foundation Executive Director Jane Patterson says those households in which new heating was installed had an average temperature increase of one degree, and people reported feeling warmer.

Replacing unflued gas heaters with better quality forms of heating - such as heat pumps and wood pellet burners - also led to a reduction in condensation and mould, and the halving of levels of nitrogen dioxide.

"Children with asthma had less coughing during the night and on waking, and less wheezing. There is no doubt that having a warmer house, and reduced nitrogen dioxide levels, reduced their asthma symptoms."

As many as one in four New Zealand children have symptoms of asthma at some time, and these symptoms are made worse by the cold.

"Some children have trouble sleeping due to coughing or asthma attacks. Across New Zealand 550,000 school days are lost every year due to asthma.

"Asthma affects many New Zealand households, and effective, quality heating therefore has the potential to improve the health of a large number of children. We already have programmes in place that include the installation of insulation and heating systems - such as the Healthy Housing initiative between Housing New Zealand and District Health Boards.

"We would like to see Government provide more funding to these programmes, and also introduce incentives and subsidies for approved heating in all homes.

"Asthma is a common, but potentially very serious condition. Putting more funding into home heating would be a very good investment."

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For details of the study see http://www.wnmeds.ac.nz/academic/dph/research/housing/heating.html

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation acknowledges the assistance of Contact Energy in making Balloon Day a reality.

Background information about the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of NZ (Inc.) is a non-governmental charitable organisation that provides education, information, advocacy and research on asthma and other respiratory conditions. For more information, visit www.asthmafoundation.org.nz.

New Zealand Statistics

- One in four children has asthma.

- One in six adults has asthma.

- New Zealand has the second highest rate of asthma in the world behind the United Kingdom.

- 550,000 school days every year are lost to asthma-related absences.

- Asthma is still the most common cause of childhood hospital admissions.

- Asthma hospital admission rates for Maori and Pacific children are increasing.

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