The peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) of 150 children living at stone quarries at Moshi and Moi were examined and compared to those of children living in urban slum areas near Bhosari. The team of experts from the D Y Patil Medical College, Pimpri, who conducted the study and presented their findings at an international paediatric conference in Athens, were shocked to find a variation among the PEFR rates of children living at stone quarries and in urban slums.

Says Dr Sharad Agharkhedkar, head of the college's Department of Paediatrics, the average PEFR of children living at stone quarries was 92.98 litres per minute as compared to the children living in urban slum areas whose PEFR was an approximate 135.2 litres per minute. "The peak flow meter measures the patient's maximum ability to expel air from the lungs or the PEFR. Peak flow readings are higher when patients are well and lower when the airways are constricted," explains Dr Sampada Tambolkar, one of the coordinators of the study that observed the children for a period of three months. From changes in recorded values, patients and doctors can determine the lung functionality, severity of asthma symptoms and treatment options.

This constant exposure to particulate matter in the form of dust particles has shown that there is a significant variation in the PEFR among children living at stone quarries. Children in the age group 3-18 years were observed for three months. Another batch of 150 children was identified at a slum in Bhosari. ``We observed that they suffered from symptoms like recurrent cold and cough, runny nose and breathlessness,'' says Agharkhedkar who concluded in the study that exposure to dust particles has resulted in wheezing.