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Those people with asthma and other respiratory problems are set to benefit from a new air quality scheme.

Launched in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire today, airAlert is a free service which monitors the quality of air, reports Bedford Today.

It works by sending a message to a mobile or home telephone which gives advance warning of poor air quality – enabling asthma suffers to take the necessary precautions.

The Herts And Beds Air Quality Network has received funding from NHS Luton to help launch the project.

Councillor Don Worlding, said the system has been designed to help people with serious respiratory problems "manage their lives".

"If high pollution is expected because of unusual weather conditions for example, anyone using the system can ensure they are carrying extra medicines or even choose to stay at home" he said.

In Luton, there can be between 15 and 35 episodes of high pollution levels each year.

The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with asthma

Many asthma sufferers are having their condition poorly controlled, it has been claimed.

According to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in Seattle, a high proportion of patients visiting their doctor for other reasons are not receiving adequate attention for their asthma.

Dr. Richard H Stanford from GlaxoSmithKline and his colleagues found that 48 per cent of patients seeing their doctor for other reasons had asthma that was not well controlled.

Speaking to Reuters Health, Dr Stanford said primary care doctors should assess their practices with asthma patients to ensure that they receive the best possible treatment.

Dr Gailen D Marshall of the University of Mississippi, Jackson, called the findings "very important".

"This study reemphasizes that in primary care practices there are a lot of not well-controlled asthma patients…and patients don’t even realize they have not well controlled asthma," he said.

The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with asthma

Asthma UK has criticised the lack of services available for black and minority ethnic (BME) groups.

Speaking Up - a new report from the organisation - claims that BME’s are regularly let down by the services provided by the NHS.

BME communities in the UK have been found to be severely affected by asthma, with many suffers being forced to live with symptoms that could be eased with adequate services.

According to research, south Asian people are three times more likely to require emergency medical treatment for the condition, while black people are twice as likely to need similar attention.

Neil Churchill, chief executive of Asthma UK says: "The impact that high hospitalisation rates have on BME communities is unjust and unsustainable. We’re asking that health decision makers and healthcare professionals ensure that people from these communities are no longer disadvantaged by their asthma services."

He added that money spent on "unnecessary asthma admissions" would be better spent on keeping people "out of the emergency rooms".

The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with asthma

Delaying vaccinations for babies could significantly reduce the risk of developing asthma, according to a new study.

Recent research indicated that babies could be at a lower risk of the condition if their diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough jabs were delayed by two months.

According to statistics, 13.8 percent of 5,000 babies who had the triple vaccination when they were two months old went on to develop asthma.

However, just 5.9 per cent of those who were administered the jab at four months or older developed the condition.

Dr Richard Harvorsen, the author of The Truth About Vaccines, told the Daily Mail: "This is a very interesting study which the government should look at.

"This study doesn’t prove the immunisation schedule we use causes a problem but it is stupid not to consider it."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said several previous studies had found "no evidence" that childhood vaccines can cause asthma.

Researchers from the University of Sunderland have found that children who are breast fed for six months or longer have a reduced risk of asthma.

They monitored 7,000 school children in the north-east of England aged between 6 and 15-years-old and discovered that breast feeding can lower the incidence of allergic disorders.

Dr Mohammad Shamssain, from the university, claims the breastfed children also showed "lower prevalence rates" of eczema and rhinitis alongside asthma.

The research found those children breastfed for between seven and nine months showed lower instances of coughing and wheezing.

"Asthma and wheeze were resolved significantly earlier in breastfed children than those who were not breastfed," he added.

"Breast feeding is a cost-effective approach to a significant prevention of allergic disease in children."

The Local Government Association recently warned that social services may need to get more involved in protecting obese children and is campaigning for a national debate on the topic.

The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with asthma

Asthma sufferers who purchase special devices to combat dust mites should stop wasting their money, according to experts.

A study by the Cochrane Collaboration indicated that mattress protectors and vacuum cleaners do not eradicate the allergens that can cause asthma attacks.

Many asthmatics are allergic to the tiny mites that are found in dust around the house, such as in carpets, bedding, soft furnishings and cuddly toys.

Anti-house dust mite cleaning products, high efficiency vacuums and mattress protectors are some of the things used to try and tackle the mite which provoke the condition.

However, lead author Dr Peter Gotzsche, director of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, said some of the studies showed a more than 50 per cent reduction in allergens but claimed even 90 per cent is not enough.

"We can conclude with confidence that there is no need to buy expensive vacuum cleaners or mattress covers or to use chemical methods against house dust mites, because these treatments do not work," he noted.

The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with asthma.

A US woman has described the frustration caused by her health insurance difficulties.

Denise Shaw encountered problems when she was made redundant and turned to her group work insurance to cover the family bills.

According to Washington publication Medill Reports, after that ran out the 37-year-old web developer was turned down by various providers because of two pre-existing medical conditions: allergy-induced asthma and a benign pituitary tumour.

She pointed out that the tumour on her pituitary glad disappeared with medication, which she continues to take daily to prevent its return.

"That’s what really bugs me - this isn’t like lung cancer," she told the paper.

"It never even occurred to me that [the tumour] could be an issue because it was benign."

Although Ms Shaw and her husband did eventually find a company willing to cover them, it was at "devastatingly high rates".

Earlier this month a breast cancer patient refused a critical illness insurance claim because she apparently suffered from diabetes won a two-year battle against the decision.

Bradford resident Maxine Gordon-Jarrett is to receive a payout equivalent to two-thirds of the claim Halifax declined to pay at the outset.

The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with medical conditions

People on the lookout for asthma insurance can benefit from avoiding diesel traffic air pollution, it has been suggested.

An article published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine outlined how the lung function of asthma sufferers is harmed by the effects of such pollution.

Scientists highlighted Department of Transport statistics revealing that there are nine million diesel vehicles in the UK, with that number continuing to rise.

"With over five million people in the UK suffering from asthma, it is important that we that we urgently consider practical ways to reduce harmful emissions from diesel vehicles," remarked Dr Paul Cullinan, honorary consultant in respiratory medicine at Royal Brompton Hospital.

"Our findings may also help city planners to consider how they lay out future road structures to make sure that, where possible, pedestrians’ exposure to exhaust fumes is minimised," he continued.

For the purposes of the study, researchers looked at the effects of a two-hour walk in two different London settings on 60 volunteers, who all had mild to moderate asthma.

Greater reduction in lung function was noted among those who walked along a bustling Oxford Street compared to those who meandered through a traffic-free section of Hyde Park.

The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with asthma

With an increasing number of people looking for asthma insurance or critical illness cover, scientists have begun investigating the link between the condition and various jobs.

Funded by charity Asthma UK, the research has taken its cue from the UK’s approximate 3,000 inhabitants who develop asthma as a result of their work every year.

Intended to identify the major occupations and occupational exposures associated with asthma as well as highlight the scale of the problem, the study will be carried out by the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London in collaboration with researchers at St George’s Medical School, University of London.

It is predicted to underline associations between asthma and the work done by those such as bakers and cleaners, who have presented growing evidence of occupational asthma.

"Although many people develop their asthma in childhood we know that some occupations may cause asthma in those who have not had symptoms before," confirmed lead researcher Dr Debbie Jarvis.

The Health & Safety Executive has estimated that between 1,500 and 3,000 people in Great Britain develop occupational asthma each year, while up to a quarter of individuals who are exposed to certain substances at work go on to develop the condition.

The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with asthma

With various studies linking asthma to anxiety disorders, new research has pointed to its possible connection with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A study of male twins in the US suggested that the association cannot be explained away by genetic influences.

Published in this month’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the work included 3,065 pairs of twins who had served in the Vietnam War.

Among all the twins, those who suffered from the most PTSD symptoms were 2.3 times as likely to have asthma compared with those who suffered from the least PTSD symptoms.

Dr Renee Goodwin, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at New York’s Columbia University, pointed out that the study included both identical and fraternal twins (who share only half of the same genetic material).

"If there had been a strong genetic component to the link between asthma and PTSD, the results between these two types of twins would have been different, but we didn’t find substantial differences between the two," the lead researcher explained.

Dr Goodwin confirmed that the work backed up previous studies which illustrated a relationship between asthma and other anxiety disorders including depression.

The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with asthma, anxiety and depression