Elemental carbon exposure and lung function in schoolchildren from Mexico City

Abstract

Though exposure to air pollution has a detrimental effect on respiratory health, few studies have examined the association between elemental carbon exposure and lung function among schoolchildren. The aim of the present study was to present the association between short-term elemental carbon exposure and lung function in schoolchildren from Mexico City.55 asthmatic and 40 non-asthmatic children were followed for an average of 22 weeks. A spirometry test was performed every 15 days during follow-up. Portable air samplers collected particulate matter onto Teflon filters. Gravimetric analysis was conducted and elemental carbon was quantified using transmission densitometry. The association between the main variables was analysed using linear mixed effects models.The mean¡SD of elemental carbon light absorption was 92.7¡54.7 Mm -1. An increase of one interquartile range in the 24-h average of elemental carbon (100.93 Mm -1 ) was associated with a significant negative impact on forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) (-62.0 (95% CI -123.3--1.2) mL) and forced expiratory flow at 25-75% of forced vital capacity (FVC) (FEF25-75%) .1) mL) among asthmatic children, equal to 3.3% and 5.5%, respectively; and on FEV1 (-95.0 (95% CI -182.3--8.5) mL) and FVC .0--13.7) mL) among non-asthmatic children.Exposure to elemental carbon resulted in an important negative effect on lung function in atopic schoolchildren, regardless of asthma status.

Allostatic Load Model Associated with Indoor Environmental Quality and Sick Building Syndrome among Office Workers

“…For example, exposure to PM 2.5 or PM 10 can decrease lung function and increase blood pressure and heart rate in the cardiovascular and respiratory system [33], [53]–[55]. Exposure to volatile organic compounds was associated with the levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in the immune system [36], [37].…”

A critical review of filter transmittance measurements for aerosol light absorption, and de novo calibration for a decade of monitoring on PTFE membranes

“…This focus overlooked a comparably long, if less ramified, history of filter optics studies using PTFE membranes as the collection substrate (Szkarlat and Japar 1981;Bennett and Patty, 1982;Campbell et al 1989Campbell et al , 1995Clarke et al 1996;Huffman 1996;Chow et al 2000;Taha et al 2007). Optical transmittance measurements are sometimes added to PTFE measurement suites as a proxy determination for "black carbon" (Cahill et al 1984;Nejedly et al 2003;Cuccia et al 2010;Barraza-Villarreal et al 2011) and, with sufficient spectral resolution, environmental tobacco smoke (Lawless et al 2004;Yan et al 2011). Massabo et al (2013) recently developed a multi-wavelength and multiangle optical system to make off-line MAAP-like absorption measurements on PTFE as well as quartz fiber filters.…”

Children’s Health in Latin America: The Influence of Environmental Exposures

“…de Medeiros et al (2009) conducted a case–control study in 14 districts of São Paulo that showed that infants born to women in regions with the highest levels of traffic-related pollution (upper quintile) had an almost 50% increased risk of early neonatal death compared with those living in areas with the lowest pollution [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.47; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.67, 3.19]. Exposure to traffic-related pollution in Latin America has been associated with increased otitis media (Brauer et al 2006), increased asthma, more severe asthma symptoms, and lower lung function (Barraza-Villarreal et al 2011; Romieu et al 2008; Wichmann et al 2009). …”