Asthma threats to be tracked with GPS

GPS navigators paired with asthma inhalers could soon help map lung disease danger zones.

The project, which is now in the early stages, is aimed at collecting statistical data on precise times and locations in which asthma sufferers have to use their inhalers, reports cnet.com.

With enough information, scientists will be able to map danger zones and monitor their development, giving asthmatics an early warning.

Now David Van Sickle, a scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is working with students on the technical side of the project.

"It will allow us to better target public-health interventions to the places and times when people are really suffering," Sickle said.

He hopes that in time the effort will help researchers discover exactly why people suffer from asthma.