title: Air pollution from biodegradable wastes and non-specific health symptoms among residents: direct or annoyance-mediated associations?
abstract: Adverse health effects of exposure to high levels of air pollutants from biodegradable wastes have been well-studied. However, few investigations have examined the potential effects of chronic exposure to low-to-moderate levels on non-specific health symptoms among residents. Besides, most studies have relied on distances to waste sites to assign exposure status, and have not investigated whether the exposure-symptoms associations are direct or mediated by odor annoyance. In this study, individual-level exposures to a proxy indicator of biodegradable waste pollution (ammonia, NH3) in non-urban residences (n=454) during 2005-2010 were characterized by data from emission-dispersion validated models. Logistic regression and mediating analyses were used to examine associations between exposures and questionnaire-based data on annoyance and non-specific symptoms, after adjusting by person-specific covariates. Strong dose-response associations were found between exposures and annoyance, and between annoyance and symptoms. Associations between exposures and symptoms (nausea, headache, dizziness, difficulty concentrating and unnatural fatigue) were indirect (annoyance-mediated). This study indicates that environmental exposures play an important role in the genesis of non-specific symptoms among residents exposed to low-to-moderate air pollution from biodegradable wastes, although the effects seem to be indirect, relayed through stress-related mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Environmental Technology, Faculty of Engineering, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. Electronic address: vbv@kbm.sdu.dk.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Blanes-Vidal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000641:Ammonia / Q000032:analysis*; D003718:Denmark; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009812:Odorants / Q000032:analysis*; D057566:Self Report
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D000641:Ammonia
keywords: Air pollution; Animal waste; Modeling; Nuisance; Physical symptoms