Acute health effects of urban fine and ultrafine particles on children with atopic dermatitis

Although ambient particulate pollutants have been shown to exacerbate existing allergic symptoms of mucous membranes including rhinitis and asthma, the effects on skin such as atopic dermatitis in childhood deserve further study. We investigated the effects of urban particulate pollutants including ultrafine particles on atopic severity in children with atopic dermatitis. We included 41 schoolchildren, 8–12 years old, who had been diagnosed with atopic dermatitis. For 67 consecutive days, all of them measured their symptoms in a diary. To assess exposure, the daily ambient mass concentrations of particulate matter less than 10, 2.5 and 1 μm (PM10, PM2.5 and PM1, respectively) and concentrations of submicron particles (0.01–1 μm) were measured at a local school. The mean mass concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 were 74.0, 57.8 and 50.8 μg/m3, respectively. The mean concentrations were 41,335/cm3 ultrafine particles (UFPs) and 8577/cm3 accumulation mode (0.1–1 μm) particles. Significant associations were found between the concentrations of ultrafine particles and the itchiness symptom in children with atopic dermatitis. An interquartile range (IQR) increase in previous day ultrafine particles concentration (IQR: 28–140/m3) was significantly associated with a 3.1% (95% confidence interval, 0.2–6.1) increase in the itch symptom score for children with atopic dermatitis. The results suggested that the concentration of ambient ultrafine particles may exacerbate skin symptoms in children with atopic dermatitis.