title: Chronic burden of near-roadway traffic pollution in 10 European cities (APHEKOM network).
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland. l.perez@unibas.ch
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perez
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Declercq
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Iñiguez
authors.forename: Inmaculada
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Aguilera
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Badaloni
authors.forename: Ferran
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ballester
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bouland
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Chanel
authors.forename: Francisco B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Cirarda
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Forastiere
authors.forename: Bertil
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Forsberg
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Haluza
authors.forename: Britta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hedlund
authors.forename: Koldo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cambra
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lacasaña
authors.forename: Hanns
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Moshammer
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Otorepec
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Barranco
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Medina
authors.forename: Nino
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Künzli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001317:Austria / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002947:Cities / Q000453:epidemiology; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006801:Humans; D019570:Inhalation Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017524:Slovenia / Q000453:epidemiology; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D001335:Vehicle Emissions
chemical_list: D001335:Vehicle Emissions