There has been a huge increase in childhood asthma to the tune of nearly 10% of all children receiving a diagnosis of asthma! Incredible!
According to a report from the Center for Disease Control, there is also a huge disparity between black, white and Hispanic children.
"Racial disparities show evidence of worsening. While 8% of white children are estimated to have asthma, 19% of Puerto Rican children and 13% of black children have the disease."
(http://www.webmd.com/asthma/news/2006121...)
Black children are 5 times more likely to die from asthma than white children.
Food allergies are also linked to asthma as well as environmental toxins, second hand smoke and, ironically, being exposed to immunizations and overly-sanitized environments.
As with other afflictions like autism, researchers don't really know if these issues are actually increasing in numbers or if more children are simply being properly diagnosed now.
The good news is that fewer children are dying of asthma.
Asthma's overall death rate has fallen to 2.5 deaths per million children under 17 [2006]; there were 3.2 deaths per million in 1999.