I'm an asthmatic and can be sensitive to cigarette smoke and air pollution. Overall
how was air quality when you were in London/Scotland?

I did a research paper in college about incidences of asthama and thermal inversions. LA and London are prone to thermal inverstions (weather and geography collide to trap pollution in place). These cause a spike in hospital admissions and death due to respiratory illnesses. Also Europe is a hotbed of asthma hospital admissions based on demographic information published in Scientific American.

Hoping to stay out of the hospital...

thanks

MIchelle

Mt recommendation: wherever you go in Europe make sure you have an overly-adequate supply of medication since the pharmacy situation can be different than here..many close on Sundays, etc.
Are you prone to "status" episodes..if so, be very prepared for that, as well.
I'm sure i don't have to tell you about the emotional component to your disease but some of the "answers" you may get to a rather generic question like this which has no scientific bearing on the future could cause you to reach for the inhaler.

Fortunately, a lot of restaurants in England and Scotland are no smoking now and almost all (if you stay out of the pubs) have good no smoking sections. My son has asthma and hasn't had a problem there. It rains a lot, so if mold is a problem for you, that might be a factor. If mold is a problem, I would definitely stay away from old hotels as they seem to be particularly moldy.
My son definitely has a problem when thermal inversions occur, but we have never encountered that in England--I guess it depends on time of year.

I can only speak from personal experience (I too have asthma). I experienced occasional discomfort in London (nothing major) and had no problems in Edinburgh. I did avoid smokey pubs but still ate at pubs that did not seem too smokey.

You should be fine. The one thing that did bother me was the blooming flowers in May. I was sicker tham heck from the pollen. As far as smoke goes it's faily easy to avoid it. I think the air quality is better than the average US in the countryside - have been going many years w/o serious problems. I always bring a medrol dose pack and antibiotics just in case. Have fun!

My asthma is triggered by mold and some dogs both of which are ubiquitous in the UK so I always take prednisone with me as a precaution.

Hi violet,
My daughter has asthma and has had no problems in London. Once she said that the hotel room was not non smoking and asked for a change of rooms due to her asthma concerns, the hotel did so immediately.
I think that you should stay away from Knightsbridge and Brompton Rd at rush hour, the fumes from the buses will cause a healthy person to keel over

I would suggest not going in the Underground.

Just returned from London. My husband usually has allergy problems and I rarely do, but we both had a very bad time with all the pollen in the air.

Don't really have any suggestions other than be sure to take plenty of medication with you. We used it practically every day.

I would suggest staying out of the parks (which were the worst places for us). For some reason I had some problems in certain pubs. I don't consider myself as someone who is allergic to cigarette smoke (although I don't LIKE it, or being around it) but we would enter some pubs and I'd start sneezing and my eyes would water. Yet it didn't effect my husband. It was very strange in that regard. Maybe the problem was just the overall air pollution in the city.

Hope all goes well for you. Even with the sneezing, we had a great time in the UK.

Terry