The Settlers Primary School Study

Principal Investigator

Thomas Robins

Co-Principal Investigators

Stuart Batterman, Graciela Mentz, Rajen Naidoo

Funding Sources

Durban Metro

About this Project

Our group conducted this study, the first ever to investigate associations between exposures to common ambient air pollutants and respiratory health status conducted among children in the South Durban industrial basin.

Findings of the study form the basis for the subsequent South Durban health study described above. Key findings included:

• The population-based prevalences of both asthma of any severity (52%), and of moderate to severe asthma (11%), among the students were strikingly high, with over 20 percent of students showing marked airway hyperresponsiveness, a physiologic marker of asthma, on methacholine challenge testing;

• Even though exposure levels were within international guidelines during the period of the study, fluctuations in ambient pollution levels of both SO2 and PM10 were strongly and consistently associated with adverse fluctuations in the health status of students with persistent asthma as assessed both by lower respiratory symptom reports and, independently, by measures of lung function.