Associations between Childhood Asthma and Phthalate Exposure

In the last three decades, the incidence rate of childhood asthma has risen dramatically, and a great deal of data shows an increasing amount of environmental pollutants including phthalates, suggesting that phthalate exposure is probably associated with asthma attack in children. This review focused on the correlation between pediatric phthalate exposure and childhood asthma. Epidemiologic studies, animal experiments and in vitro studies on phthalates and allergic asthma were discussed. Despite that a majority of studies supported the adjuvant effects of phthalates on asthma, it is unclear if phthalate exposure could be the underlying reason of the rising prevalence of asthma in children. Therefore, more efforts should be made to investigate the impact of phthalates on childhood asthma and explore the possible related mechanisms in further studies.