FRIDAY June 13, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Traffic pollution may increase risk of allergies in children, according to a German study confirming early studies that found an association between pollution and allergies.

Researchers say in a statement released Friday children who lived within 50 meters from a busy road were 50 percent more likely to develop asthma, hay fever, eczema and other allergies than their counterparts living far away from such a road.

In the study, Joachim Heinrich, an epidemiologist at the Helmholtz Research Centre for Environment and Health in Munich and colleagues followed 3,00 healthy children in Munich for six years since birth for incidence of allergies and exposure to traffic pollution.

The findings were published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.