Chronic burden of near-roadway traffic pollution in 10 European cities (APHEKOM network)

Laura Perez, Christophe Declercq, Carmen Iniguez, Inmaculada Aguilera, Chiara Badaloni, Ferran Ballester, Catherine Bouland, Olivier Chanel, Francisco B Cirarda, Francesco Forastiere, Bertil Forsberg, Daniela Haluza, Britta Hedlund, Koldo Cambra, Marina Lacasaña, Hanns Moshammer, Peter Otorepec, Miguel Rodríguez-Barranco, Sylvia Medina and Nino Künzli
Additional contact information
Laura Perez: Molecular Genetics Unit - ISCIII - Instituto de Salud Carlos III [Madrid] - Carretera Pozuelo - Callejero de Majadahonda - Instituto de Investigación en Enfermedades Raras (IIER)
Christophe Declercq: INVS - Institut de Veille Sanitaire
Carmen Iniguez: Chercheur indépendant
Inmaculada Aguilera: CREAL - Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology - UPF - Universitat Pompeu Fabra [Barcelona] - Catalunya ministerio de salud, IMIM-Hospital del Mar - Generalitat de Catalunya = Generalidad de Cataluña = Government of Catalonia = Généralité de Catalogne, CIBERESP - Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública = Consortium for Biomedical Research of Epidemiology and Public Health, GREFEMA - UdG - Universitat de Girona = University of Girona
Ferran Ballester: Chercheur indépendant
Francesco Forastiere: ASL - Azienda Sanitaria Locale [ROMA]
Bertil Forsberg: Umeå University = Umeå Universitet
Hanns Moshammer: Institute of Environmental Health - Medizinische Universität Wien = Medical University of Vienna
Sylvia Medina: INVS - Institut de Veille Sanitaire
Nino Künzli: Epidemiology & Public Health - Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute [Basel] - Medical School University of Basel, University Basel Medical School - University Basel Medical School

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Abstract: Recent epidemiological research suggests that near road traffic-related pollution may cause chronic disease, as well as exacerbate 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 (CRF) 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 exacerbation in European urban areas.

Keywords: Economie; quantitative (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-03
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in European Respiratory Journal, 2013, 42 (3), pp.594-605. ⟨10.1183/09031936.00031112⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01500897

DOI: 10.1183/09031936.00031112

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