Using epidemiology to estimate the impact and burden of exposure to air pollutants

Gowers, Alison M.; Walton, Heather; Exley, Karen; Hurley, J F

doi:10.1098/rsta.2019.0321

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(38 reference statements)

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“…An increasing number of studies, using satellite and ground data, reported reductions in the concentrations and emissions of air pollutants across the world [4]. Considering the health problems caused by exposure to air pollutants [5][6][7][8][9], the reductions in pollutant levels offer an opportunity to rethink pollution control strategies since an estimated 50,000 pollution-related deaths were avoided during the lockdown [10]. Kumari and Toshniwal [11] in their study of 12 cities and over 150 air quality monitoring stations (AQMS), highlighted the reductions in air pollutant concentrations (PM 2.5 , PM 10 and NO 2 ) varying from 20 to 64%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Air Quality Associated with Mobility Trends and Meteorological Conditions during COVID-19 Lockdown in Northern England, UK

et al. 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic triggered catastrophic impacts on human life, but at the same time demonstrated positive impacts on air quality. In this study, the impact of COVID-19 lockdown interventions on five major air pollutants during the pre-lockdown, lockdown, and post-lockdown periods is analysed in three urban areas in Northern England: Leeds, Sheffield, and Manchester. A Generalised Additive Model (GAM) was implemented to eliminate the effects of meteorological factors from air quality to understand the variations in air pollutant levels exclusively caused by reductions in emissions. Comparison of lockdown with pre-lockdown period exhibited noticeable reductions in concentrations of NO (56.68–74.16%), NO2 (18.06–47.15%), and NOx (35.81–56.52%) for measured data. However, PM10 and PM2.5 levels demonstrated positive gain during lockdown ranging from 21.96–62.00% and 36.24–80.31%, respectively. Comparison of lockdown period with the equivalent period in 2019 also showed reductions in air pollutant concentrations, ranging 43.31–69.75% for NO, 41.52–62.99% for NOx, 37.13–55.54% for NO2, 2.36–19.02% for PM10, and 29.93–40.26% for PM2.5. Back trajectory analysis was performed to show the air mass origin during the pre-lockdown and lockdown periods. Further, the analysis showed a positive association of mobility data with gaseous pollutants and a negative correlation with particulate matter.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Air Quality Associated with Mobility Trends and Meteorological Conditions during COVID-19 Lockdown in Northern England, UK

et al. 2021

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“…While there are cases when truly independent committee members take divergent views on the degree of certainty needed to attribute causality of an adverse effect to a single chemical, these divergent views may be more likely where there are multiple chemical exposures. This is because the risk evaluation goes beyond typical single agent evaluations, and methods for combining effects can be challenging [ 35 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conducting evaluations of evidence that are transparent, timely and can lead to health-protective actions

Chartres¹,

Sass

Gee

et al. 2022

Environ Health

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Background In February 2021, over one hundred scientists and policy experts participated in a web-based Workshop to discuss the ways that divergent evaluations of evidence and scientific uncertainties are used to delay timely protection of human health and the environment from exposures to hazardous agents. The Workshop arose from a previous workshop organized by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in 2008 and which also drew on case studies from the EEA reports on ‘Late Lessons from Early Warnings’ (2001, 2013). These reports documented dozens of hazardous agents including many chemicals, for which risk reduction measures were delayed for decades after scientists and others had issued early and later warnings about the harm likely to be caused by those agents. Results Workshop participants used recent case studies including Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), Extremely Low Frequency – Electrical Magnetic Fields (ELF-EMF fields), glyphosate, and Bisphenol A (BPA) to explore myriad reasons for divergent outcomes of evaluations, which has led to delayed and inadequate protection of the public’s health. Strategies to overcome these barriers must, therefore, at a minimum include approaches that 1) Make better use of existing data and information, 2) Ensure timeliness, 3) Increase transparency, consistency and minimize bias in evidence evaluations, and 4) Minimize the influence of financial conflicts of interest. Conclusion The recommendations should enhance the production of “actionable evidence,” that is, reliable evaluations of the scientific evidence to support timely actions to protect health and environments from exposures to hazardous agents. The recommendations are applicable to policy and regulatory settings at the local, state, federal and international levels.

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“…For this continuous exposure, we set the lower ERF threshold (counterfactual level) at 50 µg/m 3 . Lower ERF thresholds are set to reflect threshold effects (if such a threshold exists and is known) and/or a reluctance to extrapolate relationships beyond the range of available data [103]. However, due to the uncertainty in determining a lower ERR threshold for formaldehyde and asthma, we also chose a lower (20 µg/m 3 ) and upper range (60 µg/m 3 ) for which we made sensitivity estimates.…”

Section: Attributable Burden Of Disease Calculations and Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Burden of Respiratory Disease from Formaldehyde, Damp and Mould in English Housing

Clark¹,

Lam²,

Goode³

et al. 2023

Environments

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Quantifying the burden of disease from exposure to poor indoor air pollution can support policy development. In England, there is current regulatory and public attention on the health implications of residential exposure to formaldehyde, damp and mould. However, there is scarce information on these health impacts at the population scale. As such, we assessed the burden of key respiratory diseases from residential formaldehyde, damp and/or mould for the English population aged 0–14 and 15–49. We obtained data on the percentage of dwellings affected by damp and/or mould from the English Housing Survey and estimated the distribution of residential formaldehyde concentrations (annual average (μg/m3)) by pooling data from monitoring studies conducted in England. Exposures were combined with epidemiological relationships and national health data to estimate Population Attributable Fractions (PAFs), disease incidence, and Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) lost associated with residential formaldehyde or damp and/or mould exposure in England. We made estimates for the year 2019 but also looked back several years in time. Exposure to formaldehyde was associated with approximately 4000 new cases of childhood asthma (~800 DALYs lost) in 2019, though the estimates were sensitive to the placement of the lower exposure threshold. Exposure to damp and/or mould was associated with approximately 5000 new cases of asthma (~2200 DALYs) and approximately 8500 lower respiratory infections (~600 DALYs) among children and adults in 2019, though the PAFs were unequally distributed across dwellings based on income and ethnicity. Alternative data sources suggest that the percentage of dwellings affected by damp and/or mould may even be higher, resulting in a possible 3–8-fold greater number of cases and DALYs. Our assessment emphasizes a potential respiratory health burden in England associated with residential formaldehyde as well as damp and/or mould, further highlighting the public health importance of good indoor air quality and good quality housing.

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Using epidemiology to estimate the impact and burden of exposure to air pollutants

Cited by 5 publications

References 23 publications

Changes in Air Quality Associated with Mobility Trends and Meteorological Conditions during COVID-19 Lockdown in Northern England, UK

Changes in Air Quality Associated with Mobility Trends and Meteorological Conditions during COVID-19 Lockdown in Northern England, UK

Conducting evaluations of evidence that are transparent, timely and can lead to health-protective actions

The Burden of Respiratory Disease from Formaldehyde, Damp and Mould in English Housing

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