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

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.

Mortality due to haematological cancer in cities close to petroleum refineries in Spain.

Controversy exists as to whether working or living in the vicinity of a petroleum refinery (RF) increases the risk of haematological cancer (HC). The European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register obliges petroleum refineries to notify their emissions of toxic substances which include carcinogenic substances. Our objective is to determine if living in the proximity of an RF is associated with a greater risk of mortality due to HC in the census tracts (CTs) of the Spanish cities of Bilbao, Cartagena, Castellón, La Coruña, Huelva, and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This is an ecological study of mortality in the years 1996-2007 which includes 968 CTs with 1,263,371 inhabitants. Exposure has been measured as the distance from the centroid of each CT to the RF. The Besag-York-Mollié autoregressive spatial model has been fitted by R-INLA to estimate the relative risk (RR) and 95 % credible intervals (95 % CrI) for distance in quintiles. The most distant quintile has been taken as the reference. A total of 2,574 persons died of HC. The distances from the CTs to RFs ranged from 0.5 to 22.5 km (median = 7.6 km). All of the RRs for the quintiles of distances in Huelva were greater than 1. Statistically significant excess risk was shown in Cartagena in the nearest CT (1.8 to 6.8 km; RR = 1.43, 95 % CrI 1.02 to 2.02). Radial effects have not been detected between the CT of residence and the petroleum RF in mortality due to HC in any of the cities.

Association of proximity to polluting industries, deprivation and mortality in small areas of the Basque Country (Spain).

BACKGROUND: The study is aimed at assessing social inequities in the location of polluting industries in the Basque Country, and at exploring if the effect on mortality of living near air polluting industries is modified by economic deprivation. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional ecological study that uses the census sections as analysis units. Mortality from all causes, lung cancer, respiratory diseases and ischaemic heart disease were studied. Ordinal logistic regression models were fitted to assess if proximity of census sections to polluting industries is associated with deprivation. Bayesian Poisson regression models were used to explore if the association between proximity to polluting industries and mortality is modified by socio-economic deprivation. RESULTS: Proximity to a polluting industry and deprivation are positively associated, showing a clear gradient across deprivation quintiles. In women, the risk associated with proximity to metal-processing industries grows as the deprivation of the area increases in the case of total and lung cancer mortality. In men, the interaction terms between proximity and deprivation are positive for total, ischaemic heart disease mortality, with a credibility level approaching 90%. High levels of deprivation are associated with greater risk of mortality, excepting lung cancer in women. CONCLUSION: There is a higher proportion of more deprived census sections around polluting industries in the Basque Country. Risks of mortality associated with proximity to polluting industries tend to be higher in more deprived areas.