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Airborne particles and asthma: a biophysical model
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Abstract
Airborne particles can trigger asthma when reaching certain threshold concentrations that vary by a few to several thousand times among different particles. The underlying mechanism for the variation is unknown. Here, based on common knowledge and observations, we pro-pose that the potency of an airborne particle in causing asthma correlates positively with the weight of the particle and inversely with the friction coefficient between the particle and the airway epithelium. This model may lead to new approaches for investigating the asthma phe-nomenon, and to practical applications for re-ducing the prevalence of asthma.
KeywordsPollenSporesAllergensSurface roughnessEnvironment
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