More than one in four young women first have sex below the age of 16 - a greater proportion than previous generations, figures suggest.

Further to your obituary of Sir David Jack (9 December), Fifers are famous for dogged determination, writes Tam Dalyell.

A new treatment could prevent delayed asthma attacks, which can occur several hours after exposure to allergens, a study showed today.

Women are dying needlessly from conditions that develop or worsen during pregnancy because of a shortage of specialist doctors.

The impeccably hip credentials of HN's Roberto Carlos Lange (exotic Ecuador to Florida to Brooklyn background; he's an artist doing a "project"; album recorded in the middle of a field in Connecticut, etc) are rather at odds with the wonderfully gloopy Latin-cheese of this Spanish language, old school synth-session's best tracks.

Pollution in the air is leading to an invisible public health crisis that kills tens of thousands of Britons each year and shortens the lives of nearly 200,000 others, according to experts.

In all the year-end fuss about Jessie J, Clare Maguire, etc, Anita Blay, aka CocknBullKid, seems to have been largely overlooked – a criminal oversight, as her debut Adulthood suggests she may be the most idiosyncratically talented young British artist of her era.

Dr Hilary Jones and Toby Anstis highlight the importance of considering asthma as an important condition

Lives of asthma patients are being put at risk due to a lack of adequate training among GPs, a charity has warned.

Ozone produced by the action of sunlight on vehicle pollution causes smog, and is a particular threat to asthma sufferers, contributing to tens of thousands of serious attacks each year and hundreds of deaths.

The Government today issued a "smog alert" for the Easter weekend for ozone and polluting particles known as PM10s, which can affect people's health.

A 49-year-old former asthma sufferer set a Guinness World Record yesterday after crossing the finishing line of his 365th marathon in a year.

'Great Expectations' was perhaps the first "big book" I really got through at a gallop when I was about 11. Instead of being outside, practising to open the batting for Oz, I began the novel when housebound with asthma in a Sydney suburb of no distinction. I have to say that partway through the book my reading got a fillip when, breathing easier, I saw at the local picture house the magnificent film version directed by David Lean and starring John Mills and Alex Guinness.