German researchers who studied 20,000 people say that they have found an apparently simple answer to the age-old conundrum of happiness: people who take lots of risks are much more satisfied with their lives.

Their study asked people how much of a windfall they would be prepared to gamble on an investment that was as likely to double in value as to drop by half.

Those who were prepared to invest the most also reported, in a separate questionnaire, that they were most satisfied with their lives in general. This happy band is also more likely to emigrate, move job, go freelance and (oops) get traffic tickets and to smoke.

From here on, things get complicated: is it the risks that cause the happiness, or the happiness that causes the risks? Professor Armin Falk, of the Institute for the Study of Labour, isn’t sure. “It’s chicken-and-egg,” he says. “Are happy people more optimistic because they are happy, and more likely to take risks? Or is someone who is not afraid of risks a person who takes their life into their own hands and shapes it the way they want to?”

Those doubts aside, the study also says your chance of being a risk-taker rises if you are tall, male and young. And cocky, most probably.

Home improvements are a bad wheeze

HOME-improvements could be causing adults to develop asthma, a consultant at Birmingham University advised this week.

Dr Maritta Jaakkola was alerted to the problem when she saw several patients with adult-onset asthma who said their breathing troubles had started while their homes were being renovated.

Her study of 521 new adult asthma patients indicates that the culprit is in chemicals used when floors are being lifted and re-laid. Floor plasters and putties that are used for floor levelling appear to double the risk of asthma, she told the European Respiratory Society meeting in Copenhagen.

Anyone having widespread home renovations should ensure that they have one dust and debris-free room to live in, she says.

The society was also cautioned that aerosols, such as room sprays, carpet fresheners, furniture, window and oven cleaners could also be triggering adult asthma.

A Spanish study of 4,200 people in ten countries who do their own housework says that many new cases of asthma may be caused by frequent use of household aerosols.

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