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In a healthy population, intermittent moderate PA has beneficial effects on pulmonary function even when performed in a highly polluted environment. This study also suggests that particulate air pollution is inducing pulmonary and systemic inflammatory responses.

Both SBP and DBP increase after exposure to TRAP. Intermittent PA attenuates the TRAP-related increases in SBP, with the exception of PM10 and PMcoarse, which potentiate these increases. We showed that in low-TRAP environments intermittent PA has stronger beneficial effects on SBP than in high-TRAP environments.

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BackgroundPhysical activity enhances the uptake of air pollutants, possibly reducing its beneficial effects. We examined the effects of leisure‐time and transport‐related physical activities on the risk of myocardial infarction (MI), and whether potential benefits on MI are reduced by exposure to traffic‐related air pollution.Methods and ResultsA group of 57 053 participants (50–65 years of age) from the Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health cohort reported physical activity at baseline (1993–1997) and were linked to registry data on hospital contacts and out‐of‐hospital deaths caused by MI, until December 2015. Nitrogen dioxide levels were estimated at participants’ baseline residences. We used Cox regressions to associate participation in sports, cycling, walking, and gardening with incident and recurrent MI, and tested for interaction by nitrogen dioxide. Of 50 635 participants without MI at baseline, 2936 developed incident MI, and of 1233 participants with MI before baseline, 324 had recurring MI during follow‐up. Mean nitrogen dioxide concentration was 18.7 μg/m3 at baseline (1993–1997). We found inverse statistically significant associations between participation in sports (hazard ratio; 95% confidence interval: 0.85; 0.79–0.92), cycling (0.91; 0.84–0.98), gardening (0.87; 0.80–0.95), and incident MI, while the association with walking was statistically nonsignificant (0.95; 0.83–1.08). Recurrent MI was statistically nonsignificantly inversely associated with cycling (0.80; 0.63–1.02), walking (0.82, 0.57–1.16), and gardening (0.91; 0.71–1.18), and positively with sports (1.06; 0.83–1.35). There was no effect modification of the associations between physical activity and MI by nitrogen dioxide.ConclusionsBenefits of physical activity on both the incidence and the recurrence of MI are not reduced by exposure to high levels of air pollution.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to support health technology assessment (HTA) capacity building in Member States of the European Union with limited experience or without institutionalized HTA. The main output is a Handbook on HTA Capacity Building. Methods: The methods used were worldwide surveys of (i) HTA organizations, (ii) information management units, and (iii) HTA educational programs. The results of two surveys (i & ii) were combined with expert opinion to produce the Handbook on HTA Capacity Building. Results: Survey of HTA organizations (n = 41, response rate 35 percent). Most of the organizations were established by the government (61 percent), and all were not-for-profit. Working on HTA (80.5 percent) and doing research (63.4 percent) were the main lines of activity. Survey on information management units (n = 23, response rate 23 percent). Most (74.2 percent) of the responding HTA agencies reported having personnelThe authors thank the Partners in the EUnetHTA Work Package 8 (WP8) and colleagues of partner institutions that contributed to the work. Acknowledgements can be found elsewhere (7). This study was undertaken within the framework of the European network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) Project, which was supported by a grant from the European Commission (Grant agreement 2005110 project 790621). The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors, and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. 75https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi

People are often exposed to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) during physical activity but it is not clear if physical activity modifies the impact of TRAP on cardiac autonomic modulation. We conducted a panel study among 28 healthy adults in Barcelona, Spain to examine how physical activity may modify the impact of TRAP on cardiac autonomic regulation. Participants completed four two-hour exposure scenarios that included either rest or intermittent exercise in high and low-traffic environments. Time-and frequencydomain measures of heart rate variability (HRV) were monitored during each exposure period along with continuous measures of TRAP. Linear mixed-effects models were used to estimate the impact of TRAP on HRV as well as potential effect modification by physical activity. Exposure to TRAP was associated with consistent decreases in HRV; however, exposure-response relationships were not always linear over the broad range of exposures. For example, each 10 µg/m 3 increase in black carbon was associated with a 23% (95% CI: -31, -13) decrease in high frequency power at the low-traffic site whereas no association was observed at the high-traffic site. Physical activity modified the impact of TRAP on HRV at the high-traffic site and tended to weaken inverse associations with measures reflecting parasympathetic modulation (p≤0.001). Evidence of effect modification at the low-traffic site was less consistent. The strength and direction of the relationship between TRAP and HRV may vary across exposure gradients. Physical activity may modify the impact of TRAP on HRV, particularly at higher concentrations. KEY WORDStraffic-related air pollution; particles; heart rate variability; physical activity; noise SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATIONImpact of traffic-related air pollution on acute changes in cardiac autonomic modulation during rest and physical activity: a cross-over study.