[Allergies and environment]

Among atopic diseases, asthma and rhinitis have an increasing frequency from childhood to subjects of 30 years old, since more than 20 years. Environmental modifications are implicated in various ways: new habits, dietetic evolution, changes in atmospheric pollution. Multiple factors are recognised for their abilities at increasing the amount of some antigens (moulds, house dust mites...) or the allergenic quality of some of them (pollens and diesel exhaust particles, various polluting gas (NOx, Ozone, SO2). Active or passive exposure to tobacco smoke is clearly identified as a risk factor at the individual level. Rational basis exist for proposing efficient preventive measures for the risk of developing atopic diseases through objective determinations by integrating multidisciplinary data.