MONDAY MARCH 23, 2009
MY SAY
Fortunately, residents in her estate who volunteer to assist the town council with feedback about cats received her complaint.
They included me in their correspondence with her.
I wrote to her explaining that conditions such as asthma could be triggered off by cat hair only if a child was living with cats and was also allergic to cat hair, which had been contaminated with saliva or urine.
I also quoted her results of a study quoted in the magazine ScienceDaily, which illustrated that early-life exposure to cats may reduce the risk of childhood allergies and asthma symptoms.
The study found that children with cats in their homes were more likely to have formed allergy-related antibodies to cats.
Children at three who had formed antibodies to cats early in life were more likely to have wheeze, a respiratory symptom associated with asthma.
However, by age five, the same children who had grown up with a cat were then found to be less likely to have wheeze.
I shudder to think what would have happened if the complaint had not been picked up by a resident volunteer.
If the town council had received the complaint instead, would it have arranged for the cats in the complainant’s neighbourhood to be culled?
I appeal to flat dwellers to be reasonable when making complaints about cats.
I also hope town-council officers are able to distinguish between reasonable and unreasonable complaints.
Dr Tan Chek Wee
