Indoor Air Pollution, Tobacco Smoke, and Public Health

Repace, James L.; Lowrey, Alfred H.

doi:10.1126/science.7367873

Cited by 293 publications

(157 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…At least for IHD there does not appear to be a difference in the magnitude of the association with passive smoking with respect to fatal and nonfatal outcome (200). Furthermore, the researchers made no attempt in the analyses to differentiate between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke at home, at work, or elsewhere, because exposure at work has been found to confer a greater risk from IHD than exposure at home (208,209). The study showed that nonsmokers exposed to environmental tobacco smoke have a significantly increased risk of stroke incidence and fatality among both men (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.3-3.3) and women (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.1-2.6) when compared with nonsmokers not exposed to environmental tobacco smoke.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemiologic estimate of the proportion of fatalities related to occupational factors in Finland

Nurminen¹,

Karjalainen²

2001

Scand J Work Environ Health

260

202

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Objectives This study attempts to estimate the proportion of annual deaths related to occupational factors in Finland and considers related methodological issues and associated uncertainties.Methods Statistics on causes of death, numbers of subjects exposed, and risk ratios obtained from the epidemiologic literature were used to estimate the population attributable fraction and disease burden for causes of death from work-related diseases. Gender-, age-and disease-specific numbers of deaths were provided by Statistics Finland for 1996. Information on the size of the population, broken down by gender, age, occupation, and industry, was acquired from population censuses. A Finnish job-exposure matrix supplied data on the prevalence of exposure for specific agents and the level of exposure among exposed workers. ResultsThe attributable fraction of work-related mortality in the relevant disease and age categories was estimated to be 7% (10% for men and 2% for women), and for all diseases and ages the fraction was 4%. For the main cause-of-death categories, the attributable fraction became 12% for circulatory system diseases, 8% for malignant neoplasms, 4% for respiratory system diseases, 4% for mental disorders, 3% for nervous system diseases, and 3% for accidents and violence. The following estimates were obtained for specific important diseases: 24% for lung cancer, 17% for ischemic heart disease, 12% for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and 11% for stroke. Based on these fractions, the total number of work-related deaths that occurred in Finland in 1996 was calculated to be on the order of 1800 (employed work force of 2.1 million); 86% involved men.Conclusions High-quality epidemiologic studies and national survey data are essential for obtaining reliable estimates of the proportion of deaths attributable to occupational factors. The magnitude of work-related mortality is an insufficiently recognized contributor to total mortality in Finland, especially from circulatory diseases and other diseases caused by exposure to agents other than asbestos.Key terms attributable fraction, burden of disease, epidemiologic methods, health statistics, occupational exposure. Global estimates of the burden of disease due to occupational factors have been calculated through the application of Finnish rates of registered work-related diseases (1). The approach is subject to the following two fundamental uncertainties: (i) the validity of the data on disease incidence from the national reporting scheme and (ii) the validity of worldwide extrapolations to different regions with different exposure circumstances. With the exception of studies using workers' compensation records, only a few research projects have estimated the magnitude of morbidity or mortality induced by exposure to hazardous agents or stress factors in the work environment at a state or national level. The investigations conducted in this area have covered New York State (2), the whole of the United States (3), Canada (4), and Australia (5). Given the lack of ...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemiologic estimate of the proportion of fatalities related to occupational factors in Finland

Nurminen¹,

Karjalainen²

2001

Scand J Work Environ Health

260

202

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“…The first publications on the adverse health effects of passive smoking in adults were published in the early 1980s. [34][35][36] By the 1990s, the evidence base had progressed to a critical point at which the EPA classified passive smoke as a Class A carcinogen. 2 The publications submitted by tobacco industry opponents of regulation were older, most from a period when less evidence on the adverse health effects of passive smoking existed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Evidence Submitted in the Development of a Workplace Smoking Regulation: The Case of Maryland

Montini¹,

Mangurian

Bero

2002

Public Health Reports

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Objective. This study compared the characteristics of the basic science, biomedical, and socioeconomic literature submitted in 1993-1994 by supporters and opponents of the proposed workplace regulation of tobacco smoke developed by the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) Advisory Board.Methods. The authors retrospectively analyzed 544 written publications submitted to the MOSH Advisory Board regarding the proposed workplace regulation of tobacco smoke. Outcome measures included the type and year of publication and, for journal articles, the journal's peer review policy and impact factor.Results. Supporters of regulation submitted fewer documents (n = 164) than opponents (n = 380). Supporters of regulation submitted a lower proportion of conference proceedings and a higher proportion of government reports. The publications submitted to the regulators by the supporters of regulation were more recently published than the materials submitted by opponents. Journal articles represented more than half of the publications submitted; most were peer-reviewed. Supporters of regulation submitted articles from journals with higher impact factors (median impact factor 2.78) than did opponents of regulation (median 1.66; p=0.0005), and articles that were published more recently (median year of publication 1990) than those submitted by opponents (median 1989; p=0.0001).Conclusions. Public health advocates should highlight the scientific evidence base that supports tobacco control regulations. Public health advocates should encourage and support regulatory officials' use of the criteria of peer review, impact factor, and date of publication to prioritize their review of submitted documents in order to base policy on the best available evidence.

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“…These numbers led to the prediction that a typical office building should have mass concentrations between approximately 20 and 200 pg/m3 (Penkala and De Oliveira, 1975;Binder et al, 1976;Repace and Lowrey, 1980;Spengler et al, 1981;Quant et al, 1982).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle Size Distributions for an Office Aerosol

Owen

Ensor

Hovis

et al. 1990

Aerosol Science and Technology

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As attention has focused on indoor air quality, it has become important to obtain basic information on the effects of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system operating parameters on office aerosols. In addition, it is important to know the particle size distributions (PSDs) in a typical office environment in order to address mitigation strategies. Therefore, this study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of percent outdoor air supplied and occupation level on the PSDs and mass concentrations for a typical office building. The outdoor, return, and supply air streams, as well as hallway air, were sampled using measuring equipment covering particle diameters from below 0.1 to above 3.5 pm. The mass concentrations, when the building was occupied, increased by a factor of approximately 2 when return air was recycled over ventilating with maximum outdoor air. The concentrations when unoccupied were at least as low using minimum outdoor air as those when occupied using maximum outdoor air. As expected, the outdoor air was cleaner than the other streams. The next lowest concentrations were obtained for supply air, then return air, with hallway air showing the highest concentrations. The normalized number distributions were found to have a single mode consistently near 0.13 pm; the volumetric distributions show a peak at 0.3 pm. The influence of the damper setting and occupancy level shows up only in the magnitude of the peaks. The distributions found in the hall and for the air streams showed the same general shapes, but the differences in instrumentation preclude other conclusions.

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Indoor Air Pollution, Tobacco Smoke, and Public Health

Cited by 293 publications

References 30 publications

Epidemiologic estimate of the proportion of fatalities related to occupational factors in Finland

Epidemiologic estimate of the proportion of fatalities related to occupational factors in Finland

Assessing the Evidence Submitted in the Development of a Workplace Smoking Regulation: The Case of Maryland

Particle Size Distributions for an Office Aerosol

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