Epidemiological studies carried out on five continents have demonstrated that there are consistent associations between a range of adverse health outcomes and changes in the concentrations of PM10. Children are more vulnerable and susceptible than adults to the impact of air pollution because they are developing their lungs, their immune system is still immature, they spend more time outdoors and exercising, and they have an increased ventilation rate compared to adults(1). For asthmatic children, moreover, particulate matter can aggravate asthma (2).

An increase of 1.7% in premature mortality in children 0-4 years has been related with an increase of 10 g/m3 in short-term exposure to PM10 (3). However, the amount of ill-health attributable to air pollution among European children is high (2)(3) due to the widespread nature of the exposure and the relatively high incidence of relevant health outcomes (i.e. respiratory problems) in the population.

Several Health Impact Assessments (HIA) have been carried out for atmospheric particulate pollution. According to CAFE-CBA, there were 700 infant deaths each year across 25 European countries from PM exposure (year 2000) (5). Apheis-3(4) associated a reduction of long-term exposure to PM10 to 20 µg/m3 with a decrease of more than 20 000 premature deaths for all-causes mortality in the general population (60 deaths /100 000 inhabitants). In ENHIS-1(2), we have analysed the effects of PM10 on postneonatal mortality, on hospital respiratory admissions (0-14 years), and on cough and lower respiratory symptoms (5-17 years). A reduction of PM10 levels to 20 µg/m3 was associated with a decrease of 56 premature deaths for total postneonatal mortality (14 deaths/100 000 inhabitants). Regarding morbidity, a reduction of short-term exposure to PM10 to 20 µg/m3 was associated with a decrease of 7% for cough and lower respiratory symptoms, and of 2% for hospital respiratory admissions in children <15 years.

Focusing on children health effects is very relevant, because these deaths have a huge impact in years of life lost.

Finally, the main obstacle to creating a more complete picture of the health impacts of outdoor air pollution in Europe remains the availability of reliable routine morbidity data.

In ENHIS-2, the HIAir software (6) has been developed as a routine tool providing, for the time being, the number of health events that could potentially be prevented (or the gain in life expentancy) from an exposure to urban air pollution in a specific population. This enables evaluating different policy scenarios for reducing air-pollution levels, and can help to assess new strategies.

Go to indicator Exposure of children to air pollution (particulate matter) in outdoor air

References

1. WHO. The effects of air pollution on children’s health and development: a review of the evidence. Executive Summary 2004. Available in: http://www.euro.who.int/document/EEHC/execsum.pdf
2. ENHIS. Implementing Environment and Health Information System in Europe. Final Technical Report. WHO, Bonn. 2005
3. Valent F, Little D, Bertollini R, Nemer LE, Barbone F, Tamburlini G. Burden of disease attributable to selected environmental factors and injury among children and adolescents in Europe. Lancet. 2004 Jun 19;363(9426):2032-9.
4. APHEIS 3. Health Impact Assessment of Air Pollution and Comunication Strategy. Third Year Report 2002-2003. July 2004. Available in: http://www.apheis.net/vfbisnvsApheis.pdf
5. CAFE Programme. Clean Air For Europe (CAFE) Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA): Baseline Analysis 2000 to 2020. AEA Technology Environment, United Kingdom. 2005.
6. Health Impact Assessment of Urban Air Pollution (HIAir) software http://www.solinsur.com/hiair/Default.aspx