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PubMed2003

Ecological effects of sulfur dioxide, fluorides, and minor air pollutants: recent trends and research needs.

The regulation of the emissions of 'traditional' primary air pollutants (fluorides, sulfur dioxide) has changed the pattern of exposure of ecological systems, with greatly reduced exposure close to sources, but with a smaller effect in some remote areas. Measurements show that recovery is occurring at some sites, in fresh water chemistry (reduced acidity) and in sensitive biota (sustainable fish populations). However, the pattern of change in exposure has not always been simply related to emission reductions. An understanding of responses to recent changes will improve our predictions of the response to future emission changes, both locally and globally. As exposure to 'traditional' pollutants is reduced, the potential for other pollutants to have effects becomes more evident. In the aqueous phase, we need to understand the role of soluble and suspended organics, but this also means explicit recognition of the possibility of phase exchange, and the role of photolytic reactions on plant, soil, and water surfaces. Do highly reactive free radicals in the atmosphere, formed by the action of sunlight on volatile organic compounds, have direct effects on plants? Organic compounds and heavy metals may be bioactive as gases and particles, but for many potentially toxic compounds, the experimental evidence for biotic response is very limited. To evaluate the potential effects of pollutants, we need to understand the pathways by which airborne pollutants enter and react within ecosystems. For vegetation, we have to consider bidirectional fluxes, and distinguish among uptake through stomata, through leaf surfaces, or through roots. There are several challenges for the future. (1) Can we devise experiments that permit exposure of vegetation to gases, particles, and/or aqueous pollutants at 'realistic' concentrations? (2) Can we include the potential interactions with photolytically derived free radicals, and the dynamics of exchange? (3) How do we allow for responses to pollutant mixtures, or the simultaneous exposure to pollutants in gas, particle, and aqueous phases? The recognition of the importance of the dynamic exchange of pollutants between phases will be the key to the development of effective experimental approaches to evaluating cause-effect relationships between pollutant mixtures and ecosystem responses.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Nasal albumin in a population exposed for the first time to urban pollution.

BACKGROUND: High levels of albumin in some biological fluids are generally associated with abnormal process of permeation during an inflammatory response. In some cases, the nasal albumin levels can be used as an indirect molecular marker of epithelial damage. METHODS: We carried out an evaluation study of nasal albumin from a population (14 volunteers), exposed for 15 days to high urban pollution (O(3) 10.644 ppm/h average 10.2 h/day) in Mexico City for the first time, and when they returned to their original non-polluted city (Veracruz, State of Veracruz, Mexico) 13 days later. The nasal albumin samples were fractionated by gel electrophoresis techniques, and albumin determination analyses were done by gel scanning. The densitometry values obtained from the albumin-stained bands were compared with an internal standard and the average values compared with other groups used as reference, under conditions of non-polluted and polluted cities. RESULTS: Our findings showed in the group exposed to pollution for the first time a significant increment 2 days after entering Mexico City urban pollution. They, subsequently, had a progressive recovery 4 days later up to day 13 in their original place of residence. The reference groups for comparison were from a non-polluted city (at sea level on the Pacific Ocean) Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico, and a very polluted urban metropolis (Mexico City). The group showed a significant difference of protein levels about 2.5 higher apparently at the expense of albumin. These populations were permanent residents of environmental conditions we wanted to evaluate. Our approach was to monitor quantitatively the time course of the change of a biochemical parameter in normal mucus from a population never exposed to Mexico City urban pollution. CONCLUSIONS: Our conclusions from this study point out that pollution causes diverse mucosal damage that can be followed by biochemical monitoring.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Genetic structure along a gaseous organic pollution gradient: a case study with Poa annua L.

The population genetic composition of Poa annua L. was studied by starch electrophoresis along a transect running NE from an organic reagents factory at Shanghai, China. Five enzyme systems were stained. We have reached the following preliminary conclusions: (1). Organic pollution has dramatically changed genotypic frequencies at some loci of Poa annua populations. At polluted sites, significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed on loci Sod-1 and Me due to the excess of heterozygote. Especially in the two nearest sites to pollution source, all the individuals were heterozygous at locus Sod-1. The data suggests that heterozygotes were more tolerant to organic pollution than homozygotes, indicating the fitness superiority of heterozygotes. (2). A tendency towards clinal changes of allele frequencies was found at some polymorphic loci. Frequencies of the common alleles at loci Sod-1, Me and Fe-1 increased as the distance to the pollution source increased. (3). The effective number of alleles per locus, and the observed and expected heterozygosity were much higher in the pollution series than in the clear control site (Botanic Park population), but genetic multiplicity (number of alleles per locus) was lower than for the control. (4). Most genetic variability was found within populations, and only 2.56% were among populations of the polluted series. However, 9.48% of the total genetic variation occurred among populations when including the Botanic Park population. The genetic identity between populations of the pollution series (0.9869-1.0000, mean 0.9941) was higher than those between the pollution series and the Botanic Park population. UPGMA divided the five populations into two groups. One contained the four polluted populations, and the other only contained the Botanic Park population.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed2004

Structural impacts on thallus and algal cell components of two lichen species in response to low-level air pollution in pacific northwest forests.

Lichens have long been regarded as bioindicators of air pollution, and structural studies typically have indicated negative impacts in highly polluted areas. In this research, Parmelia sulcata and Platismatia glauca were collected from one clean and two polluted sites in the Pacific Northwest forests of the United States to investigate the anatomical and ultrastructural responses of relatively resistant lichens to moderate air pollution. Light microscopy of polluted materials revealed only slight increases in the algal cell proportions of the thallus, and a decrease in the fungal cells of the medulla. Using transmission electron microscopy, increased lipid droplets in the cytoplasm and an increase in the cell wall thickness of the photobionts were found in the polluted lichens. These results were compared with physiological data in which the net carbon uptake did not show any significant differences; however, the total chlorophyll content was heightened in the polluted samples. The increased total chlorophyll content and the absence of any changes in the algal cell proportions of the polluted samples suggest that the photobionts possessed a higher chlorophyll content per unit volume of the photobiont at polluted sites. The results also indicate that lichens have altered their storage allocation in different cellular compartments. This may be a result of symbiotic readjustment(s) between the photobiont and the mycobiont. In comparison with the physiological results from these two species, these changes do not represent damaging effects by low-level air pollution.

Air Pollution↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Monitor-to-monitor temporal correlation of air pollution and weather variables in the North-Central U.S.

Numerous time series studies have reported associations between daily ambient concentrations of air pollution and morbidity or mortality. Recent personal exposure studies have also reported relatively high longitudinal correlation between personal exposures to particulate matter (PM) and home outdoor PM concentrations, lending support to the health effects reported in time series studies. However, the question remains as to how well the temporal fluctuations in the air pollution levels observed at an outdoor monitor represent the temporal fluctuations in the population exposures to pollution of outdoor origins in a city, and how such representativeness affects the size and significance of risk estimates. Also, such spatio-temporal correlations would vary from pollutant to pollutant, likely influencing their relative significance of statistical associations with health outcomes. In this study, we characterized the extent of monitor-to-monitor correlation over time among multiple monitoring sites for PM less than 10 microm (PM10), gaseous criteria pollutants, and several weather variables in seven central and eastern contiguous states (IL, IN, MI, OH, PA, WI, and WV) during the study period of 1988-1990. After removing seasonal trends, the monitor-to-monitor temporal correlation among the air pollution/weather variables within 100-mile separation distance in these areas could be generally ranked into three groups: (1 ) temperature, dew point, relative humidity (r>0.9); (2) O3, PM10, NO2 (r: 0.8-0.6); and (3) CO, SO2 (r<0.5). Using the subsets for separation distance less than 100 miles, regression analyses of these monitor-to-monitor correlation coefficients were also conducted with explanatory variables including separation distance, qualitative (land use, location setting, and monitoring objectives) and quantitative (large and small variance) site characteristics, and region indicators for Air Quality Control Region (AQCR). The separation distance was a significant predictor of monitorto-monitor correlation decline especially for PM10 and NO2 (approximately 0.2 drop over 30 miles). Site characteristic variables were, in some cases, significant predictors of monitor-to-monitor correlation, but the magnitude of their impacts was not substantial. Regional differences, as examined by AQCR, were in some cases (e.g., in Metropolitan Philadelphia) substantial. In these areas, the pollutants that had generally poor monitor-to-monitor correlation in the overall seven states data (i.e., for SO2 and CO) showed higher monitor-to-monitor correlations, comparable with PM10 and O3, within the AQCR. These results are useful in interpreting some of the past time series epidemiological results. The differences in monitor-to-monitor correlations found across pollutants in this work (i.e., r approximately 0.8 vs. r approximately 0.4) are sufficiently large that they could be a factor in the different pollutant significance levels reported in the epidemiologic literature. It is recommended that future epidemiological studies collect and incorporate information on spatial variability among air pollutants in the analysis and interpretation of their results.

Air Pollution↗
PubMed1993

An association between air pollution and mortality in six U.S. cities.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have reported associations between particulate air pollution and daily mortality rates. Population-based, cross-sectional studies of metropolitan areas in the United States have also found associations between particulate air pollution and annual mortality rates, but these studies have been criticized, in part because they did not directly control for cigarette smoking and other health risks. METHODS: In this prospective cohort study, we estimated the effects of air pollution on mortality, while controlling for individual risk factors. Survival analysis, including Cox proportional-hazards regression modeling, was conducted with data from a 14-to-16-year mortality follow-up of 8111 adults in six U.S. cities. RESULTS: Mortality rates were most strongly associated with cigarette smoking. After adjusting for smoking and other risk factors, we observed statistically significant and robust associations between air pollution and mortality. The adjusted mortality-rate ratio for the most polluted of the cities as compared with the least polluted was 1.26 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.08 to 1.47). Air pollution was positively associated with death from lung cancer and cardiopulmonary disease but not with death from other causes considered together. Mortality was most strongly associated with air pollution with fine particulates, including sulfates. CONCLUSIONS: Although the effects of other, unmeasured risk factors cannot be excluded with certainty, these results suggest that fine-particulate air pollution, or a more complex pollution mixture associated with fine particulate matter, contributes to excess mortality in certain U.S. cities.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Who suffers from indoor air pollution? Evidence from Bangladesh.

In this paper, we investigate individuals' exposure to indoor air pollution. Using new survey data from Bangladesh, average hours spent by members of households in the cooking area, living area and outdoors in a typical day are combined with the estimates of pollution concentration in different locations in order to estimate exposure. We analyse exposure at two levels: differences within households attributable to family roles, and differences across households attributable to income and education. Within households, we relate individuals' exposure to pollution in different locations during their daily round of activities. We find high levels of exposure for children and adolescents of both sexes, with particularly serious exposure for children under 5 years. Among prime-age adults, we find that men have half the exposure of women (whose exposure is similar to that of children and adolescents). We also find that elderly men have significantly lower exposure than elderly women. Across households, we draw on results from a previous paper, which relate pollution variation across households to choices of cooking fuel, cooking locations, construction materials and ventilation practices. We find that these choices are significantly affected by family income and adult education levels (particularly for women). Overall, we find that the poorest, least-educated households have twice the pollution levels of relatively high-income households with highly educated adults. Our findings further suggest that young children and poorly educated women in poor households face pollution exposures that are four times those for men in higher income households organized by more highly educated women. Since infants and young children suffer the worst mortality and morbidity from indoor air pollution, in this paper we consider measures for reducing their exposure. Our recommendations for reducing the exposure of infants and young children are based on a few simple, robust findings. Hourly pollution levels in cooking and living areas are quite similar because cooking smoke diffuses rapidly and nearly completely into living areas. However, outdoor pollution is far lower. At present, young children are only outside for an average of 3 hours per day. For children in a typical household, pollution exposure can be halved by adopting two simple measures: increasing their outdoor time from 3 to 5 or 6 hours per day, and concentrating outdoor time during peak cooking periods.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

The assessment of sublethal effects of pollutants in the sea. Review of the problems.

Sublethal effects of pollution may be significant to survival of a stock of marine fish or even a species. Such effects sometimes lead to reproductive failure and have been identified so far only in freshwater systems. Atlantic salmon have disappeared from many streams in Europe and eastern North America, partly as a result of pollution in their freshwater spawning areas and in their estuarine nursing grounds. Reductions in populations of marine fishes due to pollution solely have not yet been demonstrated. However, Baltic Sea seals, where reproductive failure is apparently associated with high concentrations of DDT and polychlorinated biphenyl in the blubber, may have suffered a decline owing to the presence of these organochlorines. Sublethal effects of pollutants have been studied in the laboratory, essentially under four categories: (1) physiology (growth, swimming performance, respiration, circulation); (2) biochemistry/cell structure (blood chemistry, enzyme activity, endocrinology, histochemistry); (3) behaviour/neurophysiology; and (4) reproduction. Not all pollutants elicit meaningful responses in all categories, and a response is not always linear with pollutant concentration. For application to survival of populations the response has to be ultimately related to a healthy progression through a full life cycle, including successful reproduction. In recent time, physiological studies have moved into polluted marine environments with mobile laboratories having continuous sampling capability, to observe effects of pollutants in situ on marine organisms. The Controlled Ecosystem Pollution Experiment (Cepex) in Saanich Inlet, British Columbia, endeavours to investigate the effects of low concentrations of pollutants on marine organisms in large plastic silos having a slow replacement of water.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Pregnancy outcomes and outdoor air pollution: an ecological study in districts of the Czech Republic 1986-8.

OBJECTIVES: Outdoor air pollution has consistently been shown to predict mortality. The finding that this association is stronger in infants than in children or adults raises the question whether air pollution could also be related to pregnancy outcomes--such as birthweight and stillbirth. The association between outdoor air pollution and stillbirths and low birthweight in the Czech Republic, where air pollution was high, was examined. METHODS: An ecological study was conducted, with routinely collected data on stillbirths and low birthweight (< 2500 g), air pollution (total suspended particulates, sulphur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx)), and socioeconomic factors (mean income, car ownership, divorce rate, etc). The analyses were restricted to 45 districts on which data on air pollution were available for the period 1986-8. The effects of exposure variables on frequency of pregnancy outcomes were estimated by logistic regression with district-years as the units of analysis. RESULTS: Stillbirth rate (4.2/1000 births in monitored districts) was not significantly associated with any indicator of air pollution, and was weakly related to mean income and proportion of births outside marriage. Crude prevalence of low birthweight (prevalence 5.5%) showed highly significant associations with several socioeconomic factors; after controlling for these, odds ratios (ORs)/50 micrograms/m3 increase in pollutant were: 1.04 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.96 to 1.12) for total suspended particles, 1.10 (1.02 to 1.17) for SO2, and 1.07 (0.98 to 1.16) for NOx. When all pollutants were included in one model, SO2 remained related to low birthweight (OR 1.10 (1.01 to 1.20), p = 0.033). CONCLUSION: These results are consistent with a recent study in China where birthweight was also associated with total suspended particles and SO2 but ecological studies must be interpreted cautiously. Residual confounding by socioeconomic factors cannot be ruled out. The association between air pollution and birthweight requires further investigation.

Air Pollution↗
PubMed2003

Risk factors among elderly for short term deaths related to high levels of air pollution.

BACKGROUND: Air pollution has been linked to increased rates of mortality, but little is known about individual characteristics related to the increase in risk. AIMS: To examine short term effects of air pollution on daily mortality in elderly people in Bordeaux and compare characteristics of subjects > or =65 years old who died with levels of particulate air pollution. METHODS: Daily mortality data from Bordeaux were used to determine the core model of mortality for the period 1988-97. The air pollution indicator was regressed on the core model of mortality, allowing control of the main effect modifiers and confounding factors of air pollution on the same day. The residual series of this regression model was classified from the lowest to the highest to determine "low level days" and "high level days". A sample of 1469 elderly people in a French cohort study were studied. RESULTS: From 1988 to 1997, 543 subjects died; 55 deaths were during days with low air pollution and 51 during days with high air pollution. Only gender differed significantly according to both types of days, with a proportion of women significantly higher in high air pollution days than men. After adjustment for smoking habits, the odds ratio was 5.2 for women. CONCLUSION: The risk of mortality between women and men was determined on days with "high air pollution levels" above the 50-90th centiles compared to below the 10th centile. No clear pattern was observed between days with low levels of air pollution and the different centiles of exposure.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

The burden of air pollution: impacts among racial minorities.

Various epidemiologic investigations have shown that ambient air pollution levels are associated with acute increases in hospital admissions and mortality in the United States and abroad. The objectives of this investigation were a) to determine if racial minorities are more adversely affected by ambient air pollution than their white counterparts and b) to assess the contribution of socioeconomic status to any observed racial differences in pollution effect. Time-series regression methods were conducted to investigate these hypotheses for daily respiratory hospital admissions in New York City, New York. Pollutants considered included mean daily levels of particulate matter with a mass median aerodynamic diameter less than 10 microm (PM(10), ozone (O3), strong aerosol acidity (H+), and sulfates (SO4(2). The relative risk for respiratory hospital admission was calculated for each pollutant for a maximum minus mean increment in mean daily pollutant concentration. The greatest difference between the white and nonwhite subgroups was observed for O(3), where the white relative risk (RR) was 1.032 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.977-1.089] and the nonwhite RR was 1.122 (95%CI: 1.074-1.172). Although not statistically different from each other, the various pollutants' RR estimates for the Hispanic nonwhite category in New York City were generally larger in magnitude than those for the non-Hispanic white group. When these analyses incorporated differences in the underlying respiratory hospitalization rates across races (that for nonwhites, was roughly twice that for whites), the disparities in attributable risks from pollution (in terms of excess admissions per day per million persons) were even larger for nonwhites versus whites. However, when insurance status was used as an indicator of socioeconomic/health coverage status, higher RRs were indicated for the poor/working poor (i.e., those on Medicaid and the uninsured) than for those who were economically better off (i.e., the privately insured), even among non-Hispanic whites. Thus, although potential racial differences in pollution exposures could not be explored as a factor, within-race analyses suggested that most of the apparent differences in air pollutant effects found across races were explained by socioeconomic and/or health care disparities.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed2002

Use of an index to reflect the aggregate burden of long-term exposure to criteria air pollutants in the United States.

Air pollution control in the United States for five common pollutants--particulate matter, ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide--is based partly on the attainment of ambient air quality standards that represent a level of air pollution regarded as safe. Regulatory and health agencies often focus on whether standards for short periods are attained; the number of days that standards are exceeded is used to track progress. Efforts to explain air pollution to the public often incorporate an air quality index that represents daily concentrations of pollutants. While effects of short-term exposures have been emphasized, research shows that long-term exposures to lower concentrations of air pollutants can also result in adverse health effects. We developed an aggregate index that represents long-term exposure to these pollutants, using 1995 monitoring data for metropolitan areas obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Aerometric Information Retrieval System. We compared the ranking of metropolitan areas under the proposed aggregate index with the ranking of areas by the number of days that short-term standards were exceeded. The geographic areas with the highest burden of long-term exposures are not, in all cases, the same as those with the most days that exceeded a short-term standard. We believe that an aggregate index of long-term air pollution offers an informative addition to the principal approaches currently used to describe air pollution exposures; further work on an aggregate index representing long-term exposure to air pollutants is warranted.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed2003

Disparities in exposure to air pollution during pregnancy.

Previous research shows poorer birth outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities and for persons with low socioeconomic status (SES). We evaluated whether mothers in groups at higher risk for poor birth outcomes live in areas of higher air pollution and whether higher exposure to air pollution contributes to poor birth outcomes. An index representing long-term exposure to criteria air pollutants was matched with birth certificate data at the county level for the United States in 1998-1999. We used linear regression to estimate associations between the air pollution index and maternal race and educational attainment, a marker for SES of the mother, controlling for age, parity, marital status, and region of the country. Then we used logistic regression models both to estimate likelihood of living in counties with the highest levels of air pollution for different racial groups and by educational attainment, adjusting for other maternal risk factors, and to estimate the effect of living in counties with higher levels of air pollution on preterm delivery and births small for gestational age (SGA). Hispanic, African-American, and Asian/Pacific Islander mothers experienced higher mean levels of air pollution and were more than twice as likely to live in the most polluted counties compared with white mothers after controlling for maternal risk factors, region, and educational status [Hispanic mothers: adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 4.66; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.92-11.32; African-American mothers: AOR = 2.58; 95% CI, 1.00-6.62; Asian/Pacific Islander mothers: AOR = 2.82; 95% CI, 1.07-7.39]. Educational attainment was not associated with living in counties with highest levels of the air pollution index (AOR = 0.95; 95% CI, 0.40-2.26) after adjusting for maternal risk factors, region of the country, and race/ethnicity. There was a small increase in the odds of preterm delivery (AOR = 1.05; 95% CI, 0.99-1.12) but not SGA (AOR = 0.96; 95% CI, 0.86-1.07) in a county with high air pollution. Additional risk of residing in areas with poor air quality may exacerbate health problems of infants and children already at increased risk for poor health.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed1980

Air pollution, public health, and inflation.

Since the passage of the environmental legislation in the early 1970's, critics have attacked these laws as being unnecessary and for contributing significantly to the problem of inflation in the United States. This paper is an attempt to put the inflationary costs of air pollution into perspective by considering them in light of the cost, especially to public health, of not proceeding with pollution control. There is now a great deal of evidence that the concentration of certain pollutants in the air can contribute significantly to the incidence of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and to certain forms of cancer. On the basis of the results of a recent study of the impacts of pollution control on inflation, the annual reduction in purchasing power of the average family is calculated to be $31 per family. To determine the average costs of air pollution on human health, research by Lave and Seskin is utilized. First, the implications of air pollution for mortality and morbidity rates are determined. Then, the reduction in direct health costs and indirect costs (lost productivity of workers) as a result of pollution abatement is estimated. These annual health costs from pollution total approximately $250 per family. The results suggest that the inflationary costs of air pollution control are more than offset by the damages to public health from unabated air pollution.

Air Pollution↗
PubMed1995

The effects of air pollution on children.

Air pollutants have been documented to be associated with a wide variety of adverse health impacts in children. These include increases in mortality in very severe episodes; an increased risk of perineonatal mortality in regions of higher pollution, and an increased general rate of mortality in children; increased acute respiratory disease morbidity; aggravation of asthma, as shown by increased hospital emergency visits or admissions as well as in longitudinal panel studies; increased prevalence of respiratory symptoms in children, and infectious episodes of longer duration; lowered lung function in children when pollutants increase; lowered lung function in more polluted regions; increased sickness rates as indicated by kindergarten and school absences; the adverse effects of inhaled lead from automobile exhaust. These impacts are especially severe when high levels of outdoor pollution (usually from uncontrolled coal burning) are combined with high levels of indoor pollution. In developed countries, where indoor pollution levels are lower, increasing traffic density and elevated NO2 levels with secondary photochemical and fine particulate pollution appear to be the main contemporary problem. By virtue of physical activity out of doors when pollution levels may be high, children may experience higher exposures than adults. Air pollution is likely to have a greater impact on asthmatic children if they are without access to routine medical care.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

[Surveillance of short-term effects of urban air pollution on mortality. Results of a feasibility study in 9 French cities].

BACKGROUND: This study aims at quantifying air pollution effects on mortality and at evaluating the feasibility of a standardized epidemiological surveillance system of air pollution in 9 French cities. METHODS: Data collection and analysis followed a standardized protocol. Data pollution depended on the development of local air quality surveillance networks (number of indicators, number of stations.). The Generalised Additive Models (GAM) were used to quantify the association between air pollution and mortality. RESULTS: In the 9 studied areas, associations between all causes, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality, and air pollution indicators were observed. These associations were linear without threshold. Depending on the pollutants, excess in mortality related to an interquartile increase in acid-particulate pollution varied between 0.3 and 3.5% for total mortality, 0.5 and 6.3% for cardiovascular mortality, and between 0.1 and 12% for respiratory mortality. Photochemical air pollution varied between 0.4 and 7.3% for total mortality, 1.4 and 6.7% for cardiovascular mortality, and between 1.7 and 30.4% for respiratory mortality. CONCLUSION: In spite of a standardized common protocol, some disparities, inherent to the local characteristics, were noted (length of time series, numbers of ambient urban stations selected and pollutants available.). Nevertheless, this pilot study showed that multicentric epidemiological monitoring of air pollution effects on health was feasible. Yet, this requires to validate the results obtained through a re-analysis of the mortality data on a longer period of study. It also requires to study the feasibility and the relevance of the use of other health indicators, such as hospital admissions.

Air Pollution↗
PubMed1990

Urban air pollution in Latin America and the Caribbean: health perspectives.

In the last few years, air pollution has become a major issue in some countries of Latin America and the Caribbean because of urban development and growing industrialization. In addition to industrial processes often concentrated in the cities, vehicle emission and stationary-source fuel combustion are the primary sources of air pollution. Although air-quality standards have been established in some Latin American countries, these are frequently exceeded. Adverse health effects of air pollution have been mainly associated with the following pollutants: sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, photochemical oxidants, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, and lead. Short-term as well as long-term effects can be expected at levels exceeding WHO guidelines. The Latin American urban areas most affected by anthropogenic pollutant emissions are: the area of São Paulo (Brazil), the city of Santiago (Chile) and the metropolitan area of Mexico City. However, situations similar to those prevailing in these cities could well occur in other cities of Latin America and the Caribbean. The population exposed to air-pollutant levels exceeding WHO guidelines can be estimated to 81 million or 26.5% of the total urban population of Latin America and 19% of its total population. These estimates correspond to 30 million children (0-14), 47 million adults (15-59) and 4 million elderly people (60+). To date a very limited number of epidemiological studies have been carried out to determine the potential health effects of air pollutants in Latin America. To obtain a rough estimate, a scenario was hypothesized in which subjects living in cities would be exposed to a given level of air pollutant, using data from the international literature to extrapolate the expected number of events in different strata of the hypothetical population. The estimated health effects are considerable and warrant priority control intervention. This is true although epidemiological studies are needed to evaluate the health impact of specific pollutant compounds as well as their interactions in Latin American populations exposed to high levels of pollution.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Air pollution and allergic disease. Report of a Working Party of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Asthma and other types of allergic disease such as allergic rhinitis are increasing in prevalence throughout the western world. This report has reviewed the available world literature to examine the evidence that this increase is related to air pollution and to identify areas of uncertainty which need further research. We have restricted our review to aspects which are of direct relevance to allergic disease. In particular we have not addressed links between air pollution and increased cardio-respiratory mortality. There is good evidence that a number of air pollutants including sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and particulates, if present at sufficiently high concentrations, can exacerbate existing allergic disease, particularly asthma. Such concentrations are not infrequently found in the U.K. during episodes of poor air quality. The evidence that air pollutants cause problems at concentrations below internationally accepted guidelines (which are not, however, comprehensive) is not conclusive, although there is no room for complacency. In view of the frequency with which guidelines are breached and the risk to health this poses, the working group regard reducing air pollution in the U.K. as an important priority. The evidence that air pollutants, either from 'old style' fossil fuel burning, or from automobiles has contributed to the increase in the prevalence of asthma and allergy, other than through unmasking occult disease, is inconclusive although definitive studies are lacking. Similarly evidence to support the hypothesis that air pollutants act as adjuvants to increase the risk of becoming atopic is weak. The working party recommends detailed and comprehensive monitoring of air pollution concentrations across the U.K., development of techniques to measure individual exposure, research into the interaction between air pollutants and allergens and a major research effort into the effects of particulates. We would also welcome large, long-term, cohort studies to answer as definitively as possible whether exposure to increased air pollution increases the risk of becoming allergic.

Air Pollution↗