Researchers from the Pneumology group at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR) have started a study to determine if pollution can be one of the factors which induce the onset of asthma in adulthood. 2,000 inhabitants from Ribes de Freser, a small village situated in a mountain location near Ripoll, and 2,000 residents from the district of Horta in Barcelona, located near Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, will be surveyed in order to detect if they have symptoms related to asthma. Those detected, will have the opportunity to be diagnosed and treated.Dr. Xavier Muñoz, from the Pneumology Service at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, leads this study that will be finished at the end of 2014. “Nearly half of the asthma cases in adulthood are caused by allergies that use to appear in childhood. Nonetheless, the other 50% is caused by factors that are still being studied. One of them could be environmental pollution”, reports Dr. Muñoz.For comparing the incidence of respiratory diseases among inhabitants not very exposed to pollution, researchers have chosen Ribes de Freser, where Dr. Muñoz is from. The data of the environmental pollution collected in the meteorological station of the village will be compared with the data collected near Vall d’Hebron Hospital, in the district of Horta in Barcelona. The goal of the survey, which is going to be randomly done in people older than 18, is to know the influence of the environment in the prevalence and etiology of asthma. According to Dr. Muñoz, the study will give new information “about the asthma that appears in adulthood, the factors that induce its onset and the differences among patients with asthma since childhood and adulthood”.After summer, when researchers had the results of the survey, they will start calling those who had indicated respiratory symptoms to realize a deeper survey and offering them the opportunity to have a medical consult for being diagnosed and treated.