Beijing pollution and asthma

Given that my experience with TUG has been that there is always someone who can answer the most bizarre questions, or point one in the right direction, I thought I'd give this one a try.

My husband has been asked by his company to put himself in consideration for a three-year posting to Beijing. I have asthma, which is well-controlled with Flovent. I have had two attacks in 8 years, the first in 1998 after which I was diagnosed at age 39, and another in late 1999. I never have to use albuterol although I always have it. That said, when I did pulmonary function testing in 1998, not only did I fail the methocholine challenge, I was 'highly reactive to the smallest dose' according to the respiratory tech (when I asked why he threw 4 unused bottles of it into the trash). My manifestation has been dry cough, not shortness of breath.

That said, would I be crazy to even think I could do this? I am going to call my doctor tomorrow and ask her, but if anyone has any experience with this or could point me to a good source of information, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Judy

Sounds familiar

My wife and I, along with our two kids lived in Beijing from 1992-1995. My wife has asthma, she controls it well sith Prentasone (sp?). We were also just there in August, and pollution is as it was when we lived there.... She did not have any increase in asthma problems while she was there, I don't think she considered it an issue, and I KNOW she was glad we moved there.

It is a GREAT city, I am jealous that you get the chance to live there, you will love it.

I think you found the best answer yourself -- ask your doctor. She knows your situation much better than anyone here on TUG.

Having said that, I'll chime in with my experience and opinion anyway I found my current doctor because we were going on a 3 week tour of China, and he was recommended as one of the best specialists in travel medicine around here. He asked me about my allergies, and I responded that both I and my allergist believe that, while I don't test positive for asthma, I'm on the cusp -- incipient asthma, as my (then) allergist put it (have a family history of it, too). My doctor became a bit concerned, because he's familiar with how heavy the pollution is in the big cities of China. So he prescribed an asthma inhaler for me, just for the trip to China. And he was right. While I loved the trip and wouldn't trade it for the world, *all* the big cities there (Beijing, Xian, Wuhan, Hong Kong, etc) have air pollution that defies description.

Make sure your doctor is aware of how bad the pollution is, and then ask her opinion about how you'll fare.

"....defies description." is sooooo very accurate. My husband and I do not have asthma. When in China in 2003, we certainly were sensative to all the pollution. The days in Xian and Bejing the sun was so blocked out by the pollution, that it was difficult to recognize it was actually up there.......And this was in March!!!!

We think of our trip to China as an adventure, not a vacation and I certainly would not want to have missed the opportunity, but living there.......

Disturbing Thoughts ...

We're on our way to Shanghai at the end of September for about twon and half weeks. Should we be concerned about the pollution in the most densely packed city in the world? Just an afterthought.

I do know that there are concerns being voiced about the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. It is claimed that Beijing is one of the most polluted areas in the world and that the Games are scheduled at the time of year which has the highest levels.

RonaldCol said:

We're on our way to Shanghai at the end of September for about twon and half weeks. Should we be concerned about the pollution in the most densely packed city in the world? Just an afterthought.

Click to expand...

I didn't mention Shanghai because, when we went, it seemed to be much less polluted than the other cities I mentioned. I don't know whether that's normal or just the luck of the draw for our trip.

Thanks for all the replies, sorry I didn't acknowledge them sooner! I'm not 100% certain what answer I wanted from the doctor, but she said it would be fine, my meds are common and easily obtainable so she didn't see a problem.

KevinRS, it's far from a done deal yet, but I'm glad to hear that you liked living there and it wasn't a problem for your wife! My husband's boss emailed a colleague who is already in-country and found out that a lot of people are living about 40km outside of Beijing, where the air isn't so bad. If this all comes off, we'll get a househunting trip so I guess I'll see how bad it really is. We've been wanting an overseas assignment for a long time, but were really thinking in terms of Europe or Latin America so China is a pretty big shift in our thinking. The opportunity to be in Beijing during the Olympics is pretty cool, though.

Judy