Living near busy street ups breathing problems

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Living near busy street ups breathing problems

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews & storyID=2006-12-2\

7T180239Z_01_EIC764905_RTRUKOC_0_US-BREATHING-PROBLEMS.xml

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The closer people live to a main road, the

more likely they are to suffer from respiratory symptoms such as

breathlessness and wheezing, a new study from Switzerland shows.

" These findings from a general population provide strong confirmation that

living near busy streets leads to adverse respiratory health effects, " Dr.

Lucy Bayer-Oglesby, of the University of Basel, and colleagues write in

the American Journal of Epidemiology.

While outdoor air pollution -- especially tiny particles that can be

breathed deep into the lungs--is known to be hazardous to people's health,

to date no researchers have looked at how proximity to main roads affects

respiratory symptoms in a general population, Bayer-Oglesby and her team

note.

To investigate, they looked at data from a two-part study of air pollution

and lung disease. It involved 9,651 randomly selected men and women aged

18 to 60 who enrolled in the study in 1991, 8,047 of whom re-enrolled for

the second phase of the study in 2002.

People's risk of having attacks of breathlessness increased by 13% for

every 500-meter segments of main street located within 200 meters of their

home. The risk of such attacks among people who had never smoked fell by

12% for each additional 100 meters between their homes and a main street.

Individuals whose homes were within 20 meters of a busy road were 15% more

likely to regularly have phlegm in their breathing passages, while they

were 34% more likely to have wheezing with breathing problems.

The effects of traffic on respiratory health were stronger for men and for

people who had never smoked.

The effects of living near main streets were weaker in 2002 than in 1991,

which may have been due to stricter requirements on auto emissions, the

researchers note.

" Living close to main streets or in a dense street network increases the

risks for certain respiratory symptoms in adults, particularly for

asthma-related symptoms such as attacks of breathlessness and wheezing and

for bronchitic symptoms such as regular cough and phlegm, " they conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, December 15, 2006.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

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Living near Main Streets and Respiratory Symptoms in Adults

The Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults

American Journal of Epidemiology 2006 164(12):1190-1198;

doi:10.1093/aje/kwj338

Lucy Bayer-Oglesby1, Christian Schindler1, nne E. Hazenkamp-von Arx1,

Charlotte Braun-Fahrländer1, Dirk Keidel1, Regula Rapp1, Nino Künzli2,

Otto Braendli3, Luc Burdet4, L-J Sally Liu1, Philippe Leuenberger5, Ursula

Ackermann-Liebrich1 and the SAPALDIA Team

1 Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Basel, Basel,

Switzerland

2 Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles,

CA 3 Zuercher Hoehenklinik, Wald, Switzerland

4 Hôpital Intercantonal de la Broye, Payerne, Switzerland

5 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Lausanne, Switzerland

Correspondence to Dr. Lucy Bayer-Oglesby, Institute of Social and

Preventive Medicine, University of Basel, Steinengraben 49, Basel CH-4055,

Switzerland (e-mail:

The Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults

(SAPALDIA), conducted in 1991 (SAPALDIA 1) in eight areas among 9,651

randomly selected adults aged 18–60 years, reported associations among the

prevalence of respiratory symptoms, nitrogen dioxide, and particles with

an aerodynamic diameter of less than 10 µg/m3. Later, 8,047 subjects

reenrolled in 2002 (SAPALDIA 2). The effects of individually assigned

traffic exposures on reported respiratory symptoms were estimated, while

controlling for socioeconomic and exposure- and health-related factors.

The risk of attacks of breathlessness increased for all subjects by 13%

(95% confidence interval: 3, 24) per 500-m increment in the length of main

street segments within 200 m of the home and decreased in never smokers by

12% (95% confidence interval: 0, 22) per 100-m increment in distance from

home to a main street. Living within 20 m of a main street increased the

risks of regular phlegm by 15% (95% confidence interval: 0, 31) and

wheezing with breathing problems by 34% (95% confidence interval: 0, 79)

in never smokers. In 2002, the effects related to road distance were

different from those in 1991, which could be due to changes in the traffic

pollution mixture. These findings among a general population provide

strong confirmation that living near busy streets leads to adverse

respiratory health effects.

cohort studies; environmental exposure; geographic information systems;

motor vehicles; prevalence; respiratory tract diseases; Switzerland

Abbreviations: OR, odds ratio; PM10, particles with an aerodynamic

diameter of less than 10 µg/m3 (PM2.5 defined analogously); SAPALDIA,

Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults