Recent epidemiological research suggests that near road traffic-related pollution may cause chronic disease, as well as exacerbation of related pathologies, implying that the entire ''chronic disease progression'' should be attributed to air pollution, no matter what the proximate cause was. We estimated the burden of childhood asthma attributable to air pollution in 10 European cities by calculating the number of cases of 1) asthma caused by near road traffic-related pollution, and 2) acute asthma events related to urban air pollution levels. We then expanded our approach to include coronary heart diseases in adults.Derivation of attributable cases required combining concentration-response function between exposures and the respective health outcome of interest (obtained from published literature), an estimate of the distribution of selected exposures in the target population, and information about the frequency of the assessed morbidities.Exposure to roads with high vehicle traffic, a proxy for near road traffic-related pollution, accounted for 14% of all asthma cases. When a causal relationship between near road traffic-related pollution and asthma is assumed, 15% of all episodes of asthma symptoms were attributable to air pollution. Without this assumption, only 2% of asthma symptoms were attributable to air pollution. Similar patterns were found for coronary heart diseases in older adults.Pollutants along busy roads are responsible for a large and preventable share of chronic disease and related acute exacerbations in European urban areas. @ERSpublications APHEKOM network: pollution near busy roads is a large, preventable source of chronic disease and acute episode triggers
The basic right to healthy indoor air has been emphasized almost two decades ago by the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 and then, the improvement of indoor air quality (IAQ) was included in the regional priority goals of the Children's Environmental Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE) and adopted by the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in 2004. 2 Children, one of the most vulnerable groups, spend approximately 6-9 h per weekday in primary school buildings in Europe. Accordingly, several national and international research projects have already been conducted in the past two decades to investigate the association between the concentration of indoor air pollutants and the health outcomes for children at public settings and to promote the health and well-being of children.The HESE study (Health Effects of the School Environment;2004 was the first European project, which provided data on both IAQ and health effects with a wide geographic coverage. 3 In total, twenty-one schools located in five countries were investigated and several IAQ-related problems were identified,
Health is our wealth and we are rarely aware that the choice of living and working environment affects us. We spend most of our time in indoor environments so the quality of indoor air plays an important role in the maintenance of health and well-being. Moreover, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is emerging technology, which plays an essential role in collaboration among multi-discipline professions, time and cost saving, fabrication and construction as well as facilities management. However, it is not accepted by all planners yet. BIM could also offer a framework to help improving health and well-being of future users of the new building. The main aim of this paper is to monitor environmental and health impact data in BIM models to assure healthy living environments. First, the paper explores which environmental and health parameters could be measured in the indoor environment and which are already present in BIM models. Second, it explores options to expand BIM specifications to support monitoring environmental and health impact data in BIM models to assure healthy living environments.
The assessment of health risks of policies is an inevitable, although challenging prerequisite for the inclusion of health considerations in political decision making. The aim of our project was to develop a so far missing methodological guide for the assessment of the complex impact structure of policies. The guide was developed in a consensual way based on experiences gathered during the assessment of specific national policies selected by the partners of an EU project. Methodological considerations were discussed and summarized in workshops and pilot tested on the EU Health Strategy for finalization. The combined tool, which includes a textual guidance and a checklist, follows the top-down approach, that is, it guides the analysis of causal chains from the policy through related health determinants and risk factors to health outcomes. The tool discusses the most important practical issues of assessment by impact level. It emphasises the transparent identification and prioritization of factors, the consideration of the feasibility of exposure and outcome assessment with special focus on quantification. The developed guide provides useful methodological instructions for the comprehensive assessment of health risks of policies that can be effectively used in the health impact assessment of policy proposals.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.