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CNN Live Today

A Look at 'Asthma Hotspots'

Aired October 29, 2002 - 10:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: In health news this morning, we're focusing on asthma and cities designated as so-called asthma hotspots.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us to talk about that.

Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

COOPER: So some new studies out I don't quite understand. What are asthma hotspots?

GUPTA: This is an independent statistician that actually conducted this study and actually looked at 100 metropolitan cities in the United States and tried to find cities that would be particularly challenging for those who have asthma. Doesn't necessarily mean the cities cause asthma, but if you are an asthma sufferer, there are five cities -- well, actually, there's 25 cities. We're going to tell you the top five that you want to stay away from and also the top five to actually that you possibly live in. There's the list.

Top of the list, these are the worst cities.

COOPER: Tucson, Arizona? That's odd.

GUPTA: Tucson, Arizona, Kansas City, Missouri, Phoenix, Arizona, two cities in Arizona, Fresno, California, and New York.

COOPER: You'd think a place like Tucson, Arizona, people traditionally have gone there to help their breathing.

GUPTA: That's right, because it is the desert and things like that. We actually talked to the asthma and allergy foundation about that issue, and they said it's probably most due to actually dust storms and pollen over things that have grown over the years now.

So it used to be a very favorable city to live in, a lot of cities in Arizona were, but now a very unfavorable city.

And speaking of that, let's look at the most favorable cities to live in as well. We have the bottom five, you can see there Middle Sex, New Jersey, McAllen, Texas, San Jose, Monmouth, New Jersey, Orange County, California. Anderson, those are the best cities if you're an asthma sufferer to actually live in.

As we just saw from the worst of the list, the cities can actually move around. For instance, Hawaii actually used to be on that list for quite some time. People actually attributed that to the mold, being so close to the ocean, but you can see it's actually fallen off the top five now.

COOPER: So this study looks at, one, how accurate is this study, and also, what do they look at? It's mold, it's pollen -- it's all sorts of factors?

GUPTA: Right. This was not trying to determine where the worst places to actually develop asthma, but the worst places tat if you had asthma, you would be very challenged there. They looked at mold, they looked at pollen, but they also looked at access to allergy specialists, access to asthma specialists, the number of asthma prescriptions written, things like that. They tried to figure that all out. It was done by an independent statistician, and there are known risk factors for asthma, which we can also look at as well.

There are some known risk factors. If you have large urban area living, a lot of the cities were larger cities. They only looked at metropolitan areas. Second hand smoke exposure, we didn't see this on the list even a few years ago, but it's second on the list now, exposure to certain chemicals. There is a hereditary component to asthma. People are defining that more and more. If your parents have asthma, you're more likely to get it. If you had a lot of infections as a child, it will increase your risk of developing asthma, low birth weight, obesity, and that last thing is reflux disease.

COOPER: But you know, you look at that list, and that can fit just about anyone at any given time. Do they really know what causes asthma?

GUPTA: Right, that's a very important question. They can't relate it to a specific genetic component, for example, to say if you have this, you most likely are going to develop asthma. It does seem to be a combination of different factors. Asthma itself is sort of a general term, it just means difficulty breathing when exposed to certain things. In some cases, pollen exposures, mold exposures, whatever it is. But what causes asthma sort of definitively is, you're exactly right, really not known yet.

COOPER: Dr. Gupta, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 29, 2002 - 10:24   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: In health news this morning, we're focusing on asthma and cities designated as so-called asthma hotspots.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us to talk about that.

Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

COOPER: So some new studies out I don't quite understand. What are asthma hotspots?

GUPTA: This is an independent statistician that actually conducted this study and actually looked at 100 metropolitan cities in the United States and tried to find cities that would be particularly challenging for those who have asthma. Doesn't necessarily mean the cities cause asthma, but if you are an asthma sufferer, there are five cities -- well, actually, there's 25 cities. We're going to tell you the top five that you want to stay away from and also the top five to actually that you possibly live in. There's the list.

Top of the list, these are the worst cities.

COOPER: Tucson, Arizona? That's odd.

GUPTA: Tucson, Arizona, Kansas City, Missouri, Phoenix, Arizona, two cities in Arizona, Fresno, California, and New York.

COOPER: You'd think a place like Tucson, Arizona, people traditionally have gone there to help their breathing.

GUPTA: That's right, because it is the desert and things like that. We actually talked to the asthma and allergy foundation about that issue, and they said it's probably most due to actually dust storms and pollen over things that have grown over the years now.

So it used to be a very favorable city to live in, a lot of cities in Arizona were, but now a very unfavorable city.

And speaking of that, let's look at the most favorable cities to live in as well. We have the bottom five, you can see there Middle Sex, New Jersey, McAllen, Texas, San Jose, Monmouth, New Jersey, Orange County, California. Anderson, those are the best cities if you're an asthma sufferer to actually live in.

As we just saw from the worst of the list, the cities can actually move around. For instance, Hawaii actually used to be on that list for quite some time. People actually attributed that to the mold, being so close to the ocean, but you can see it's actually fallen off the top five now.

COOPER: So this study looks at, one, how accurate is this study, and also, what do they look at? It's mold, it's pollen -- it's all sorts of factors?

GUPTA: Right. This was not trying to determine where the worst places to actually develop asthma, but the worst places tat if you had asthma, you would be very challenged there. They looked at mold, they looked at pollen, but they also looked at access to allergy specialists, access to asthma specialists, the number of asthma prescriptions written, things like that. They tried to figure that all out. It was done by an independent statistician, and there are known risk factors for asthma, which we can also look at as well.

There are some known risk factors. If you have large urban area living, a lot of the cities were larger cities. They only looked at metropolitan areas. Second hand smoke exposure, we didn't see this on the list even a few years ago, but it's second on the list now, exposure to certain chemicals. There is a hereditary component to asthma. People are defining that more and more. If your parents have asthma, you're more likely to get it. If you had a lot of infections as a child, it will increase your risk of developing asthma, low birth weight, obesity, and that last thing is reflux disease.

COOPER: But you know, you look at that list, and that can fit just about anyone at any given time. Do they really know what causes asthma?

GUPTA: Right, that's a very important question. They can't relate it to a specific genetic component, for example, to say if you have this, you most likely are going to develop asthma. It does seem to be a combination of different factors. Asthma itself is sort of a general term, it just means difficulty breathing when exposed to certain things. In some cases, pollen exposures, mold exposures, whatever it is. But what causes asthma sort of definitively is, you're exactly right, really not known yet.

COOPER: Dr. Gupta, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com