The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between air pollution and respiratory symptoms in young children. A total of 263 children at high risk of developing asthma or atopy were recruited antenatally and all respiratory symptoms experienced by the children were recorded by their parents for five years. Daily pollutant concentrations and meteorological data (ambient temperature and humidity) were collected from network monitoring sites. Logistic regression models investigating relationships between individual air pollutants and respiratory symptoms showed significant associations between Ozone (O3) (1 h and 8 h) concentrations and raised body temperature (lag 0); Carbon monoxide (CO) (8 h) and wheeze/rattle and runny/blocked nose (lag 5 and additive exposure over 5 days); Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (24 h) concentrations and cough (lag 0 and additive exposure over 5 days) and PM2.5 and visibility (BSP) (1 h) with cough (lag 0). These associations were observed even though air pollutant concentrations were below national standards throughout the study period.

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23peripheral blood, 4-6 -of his lymphocytes being Downey cells. Five months after the start of his illness he had a CF antibody titre of 40 and an IF titre of IgM antibodies of 8 against CMV. Unfortunately bacterial contamination spoilt our attempt to isolate CMV from his urine. CommentCMV can be isolated from urine during and sometimes many months after a clinical illness associated with this virus. For technical reasons we could not establish whether our patient's husband was a CMV excretor, but CMV was isolated from his wife's urine during her illness and both had serum antibodies against CMV.It seems clinically highly probable, though it was not virologically proved, that the man's illness was associated with a CMV infection. He fell ill within the incubation period for a post-transfusion CMV infection3 and his clinical picture resembled that which appears in association with CMV infection.i-3Our patient became ill 15 weeks after her husband had recovered clinically, but only four weeks after his "haematological recovery." The virological findings showed that she had a current CMV infection, evidently a primary one,5 during the period she was ill with a mononucleosis-like syndrome of septic type. The couple lived alone in their house. A spread of CMV infection from the husband to his wife seems very likely, though we cannot explain why the virus transmission from husband to wife did not occur earlier.This case history shows that clinicians must be aware of the possibility of a spread of CMV from a patient who has undergone heart surgery or renal transplantation to other members of the family. Even if most of the primary CMV infections are asymptomatic, a few may cause a longlasting fever.

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