About the Authors

Anke Hüls

Anke.Huels@IUF-Duesseldorf.de

Affiliation IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf, Germany

Ursula Krämer

Affiliation IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf, Germany

Monika Gappa

Affiliation Marien Hospital Wesel, Children’s Hospital and Research Institute, Wesel, Germany

Christine Müller-Brandes

Affiliation Medical School of Hanover, Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Hanover, Germany

Tamara Schikowski

Affiliation IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf, Germany

Andrea von Berg

Affiliation Marien Hospital Wesel, Children’s Hospital and Research Institute, Wesel, Germany

Barbara Hoffmann

Affiliations IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf, Germany, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

Antje Schuster

Affiliation Heinrich-Heine University, University Children’s Hospital, Düsseldorf, Germany

Matthias Wisbauer

Affiliation Heinrich-Heine University, University Children’s Hospital, Düsseldorf, Germany

Claudia Flexeder

Affiliation Institute of Epidemiology I, Helmholtz Zentrum München - erman Research Center for Environmental Health, Munich, Germany

Joachim Heinrich

Affiliations Institute of Epidemiology I, Helmholtz Zentrum München - erman Research Center for Environmental Health, Munich, Germany, Comprehensive Pneumology Center Munich (CPC-M), Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Munich, Germany

Holger Schulz

Affiliations Institute of Epidemiology I, Helmholtz Zentrum München - erman Research Center for Environmental Health, Munich, Germany, Comprehensive Pneumology Center Munich (CPC-M), Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Munich, Germany

Dietrich Berdel

Affiliation Marien Hospital Wesel, Children’s Hospital and Research Institute, Wesel, Germany

Competing Interests

The study received funding from GlaxoSmithKline GmbH & Co. KG, Aerocrine AB, MSD Sharp & Dohme GmbH, AstraZeneca GmbH, Novartis Pharma GmbH, Astellas Pharma GmbH, Munich, Germany, Ndd Medizintechnik AG, Zürich, Switzerland, Lions Club Wesel, Mead Johnson and Nestlé companies. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: UK AvB DB JH HS. Performed the experiments: MG CMB AvB AS MW JH HS DB. Analyzed the data: AH. Wrote the paper: AH UK MG CMB TS AvB BH AS MW CF JH HS DB.