Health risk analysis for the role of dust and gaseous air pollution on bronchitis

The general morbidity is being influenced to a great extent by air way diseases. Since their incidence and prevalence have been increasing, the identification of causal factors is of importance for preventive strategies. Primary irritative, gaseous (like sulfur dioxide (SOz)) as well as particulate pollutants (like TSP) can be regarded as causal constituents. Using the opportunity of changing levels of ambient air pollution in East Germany since 1989, the impact of SO2 and TSP on bronchitis was investigated over the last 10 years as part of several intervention studies with children. The data suggest a significant association between SO2 and the prevalence of bronchitis in children but not for TSP. Considering the findings of other studies, these results would amend the hypothesis put forward in a review of the literature as TSP < ultrafine particles (sod2> 5 SO2. Although these data show a significant association with only SO2, this does not imply that ultrafine particles, such as ~ 0 4 ~ , do not contribute to the association with the observed adverse health effects. Nevertheless, the findings Adapted from a draft version of "Effect of sulfur dioxide and particulate pollutants on bronchitis in children a risk analysis" by Olf Herbarth, Gisela Fritz, Peter Krumbiegel, Ulrike Diez, Ulrich Franck, Matthias Richter. Environmental Toxicology, in press. Copyright (c) 2001 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Used by permission of John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Transactions on Biomedicine and Health vol 5, © 2001 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3525