Inequalities in Asthma Mortality: a Specific Case of a General Issue of Health Inequalities

Respiratory disease was always the ‘British’ disease. Not the most common cause of death in Britain, but the cause that most marked Britain as being different from other countries. In the same way, liver disease was the French disease. In both cases, it is not difficult to think of reasons why. The French preoccupation with le foie had much to do with alcohol. French farmers were, in part, paid in wine: 1.5 L a day and for grape pickers 5 L a day, and for a time, France topped the league tables of per person annual alcohol consumption. As for the British disease, it can be linked to foul air, polluted factories, crowded living conditions that promoted infection and exposure to moulds and other allergens, being early adopters of smoking.