Prime Time 7/8, Writing, Arbeitsheft

4 20 Nutrition, health and welfare 4.5 Guided writing Is cleanliness among the causes of allergies? Read the text extracts below and put them in the correct order. Write the first four words into the boxes provided. The beginning and ending of the text, subheadings and an additional paragraph will guide you. Make sure that the structure of your version is logical. A similar study of 1,300 children in New Zealand showed that children whose mothers lived on farms during pregnancy were 50 per cent less likely to have asthma and significantly less likely to have allergies such as hay fever or eczema. Published in the European Respiratory Journal , the study suggests that the exposure of pregnant women to possible allergy causes enables their bodies to create antibodies for the foetus as well. If someone in your household has allergies or asthma, your first reaction may be to try to remove allergy irritants from your home regularly. But all that mopping, sweeping, air freshening and spray cleaning could actually increase your risk of allergies and asthma. Research has shown that young children who aren’t exposed to allergens and germs in their early years face a higher risk of developing asthma and allergies later in life. Previous studies have shown that people whose work exposes them daily to cleaning products are more likely to have asthma or respiratory symptoms such as coughing and wheezing. People who already have some type of lung infection or illness are at increased risk from spray cleaning products. The effect appears to be isolated to spray cleaners. Use of cleaning agents in other forms did not have the same effect. According to a study of more than 3,000 adults who did not have asthma when the study began, using cleaning sprays more than once a week could trigger asthmatic attacks, and the risk of asthma increased as the use of sprays increased. Sprays that could lead to asthma and allergies include glass cleaners, furniture cleaners and air fresheners. It’s not an insignificant problem: More than 50 million Americans have some type of allergy, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immu- nology, and about 25 million Americans have asthma – a number expected to increase, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some experts have associ- ated cleanliness with allergies for several years. One study of 900 infants found that children who attend daycare are 35 per cent less likely to develop allergies and asthma later in life than those who stay home. The ones who entered daycare between six months and one year of age had 75 per cent less asthma by age five than their peers. “It’s a hypothesis, but it doesn’t explain everything, such as why children raised in inner cities, where they are exposed to allergens like air pollution and cockroaches, have higher rates of asthma,” says Kenneth Rosenman, MD, from Michigan State Univer- sity. The argument that overly clean environments contrib- ute to allergies is called the “hygiene hypothesis”. Generally, the idea is that exposure to germs and infection helps build the immune system, which can protect against allergies and asthma. The best data supporting the idea that early exposure to al- lergens reduces the risk of allergies comes from studies of farms in Europe. These farm studies, where exposure to animals, dirt and germs is more or less unavoidable, show that a messy childhood might protect against allergies. 4  A D G B E H C F I Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verl gs öbv