Ear Infections Down Due To Better Air?

Los Angeles - Researchers at UCLA think that the reason American babies are having fewer ear infections than in years past is because air quality in the United States has improved since environmental laws were tightened, it was reported today.

Pediatric ear infections are one of the most-miserable maladies that can affect a baby or toddler, often causing them to scream for hours in pain. The illness has a direct cost of between $3 billion and $5 billion in the U.S. each year, UCLA researchers said.

Doctors at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, and Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, said medicine had always thought atmospheric pollutants like carbon monoxide, nitrous dioxide, sulfur dioxide and tiny particulates caused ear infection in babies.

Smog has been significantly reduced in major American cities since clean air laws were passed in the 1970s, and particularly since a major tightening of the Clean Air Act in 1990.

"We believe these findings, which demonstrate a direct correlation between air quality and ear infections, have both medical and political significance," said UCLA Dr. Nina Shapiro.

The findings were published in the new edition of " Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery " a medical journal.