title: Influence of air pollution on chronic obstructive respiratory diseases: comparison between city (Rome) and hillcountry environments and climates.
abstract: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPDs) constitute a social problem of widespread interest. These diseases increase slowly and constantly. Air pollution and its impact on public health continually repropose certain absolute priorities, such as the pin-pointing of strategies to control the pollution sources, the planning of observational studies and the epidemic control. This work shows that a climate marked by always windy weather and low humidity and with low chemical pollutant concentrations (Pietracupa; Molise, Italy) is connected to smaller prevalence of COPDs in comparison with big cities like Rome. Living in non-polluted areas, the benefits of a healthy climate in terms of an improvement in breathing and bronchial hyperactivity reduction, may only in part be backed up by epidemic evidence; however, they are a solid base on which to build definite research projects which can effectively validate it even from an experimental point of view supported by statistics.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio Inquinamento Chimico dell'Aria, DIPIA-ISPESL, Via Urbana 167, 00184 Rome, Italy. pasquale.avino@uniromal.it
authors.forename: Pasquale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Avino
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: De Lisio
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grassi
authors.forename: Maria C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lucchetra
authors.forename: Baldassare
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Messina
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Monaco
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petraccia
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Quartieri
authors.forename: Rivka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rosentzwig
authors.forename: Mario V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: Sebastiano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Spada
authors.forename: Vincenzo I
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: Valenzi
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000506:poisoning*; D002980:Climate; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012384:Rome / Q000453:epidemiology; D012424:Rural Population; D014505:Urban Population
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants