Introduction: Immune dysfunction-based diseases are estimated to. affect up to a quarter of children in certain developed countries [1] with asthma being among the most prominent of chronic conditions. The prevalence of childhood asthma has risen in most countries over the past 3-4 decades, and a diagnosis of asthma presages the likely occurrence of several other comorbid chronic conditions as the child ages. Yet, despite the increasing impact of childhood asthma on individuals, families, and the healthcare system, most of our knowledge of the risk factors for both maternal and childhood asthma has come from retrospective research decades after the asthma epidemic emerged rather than via the proactive safety testing of chemicals and drugs.
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