The USC Children’s Health Study suggests that children with asthma living in a community with high particle concentrations may have suppressed lung growth. After children moved into cleaner cities their lung growth returned to the normal rate, but they did not recover the lost potential growth, according to John Peters, the study's principle investigator. It is difficult to positively assign a quantitative risk associated with particulate matter because nearly all studies of its health effects find other pollutants present that may account for some of the effects. Part of the problem is due to the nature.