Elsevier

Atmospheric Environment

Volume 36, Issue 11, April 2002, Pages 1733-1736
Atmospheric Environment

Declining ambient air pollution and lung function improvement in Austrian children

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1352-2310(02)00179-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Three thousand four hundred fifty-one Austrian elementary school children were examined (between 2 and 8 times) by spirometry by standardized methods, over a 5 yr period. The districts where they lived were grouped into those where NO2 declined during this period (by at least 30 μg/m3 measured as half year means) and those with less or no decline in ambient NO2. In both groups of districts, SO2 and TSP fell by similar amounts over this period. A continuous improvement of MEF25 (maximum exspiratory flow rate at 25% vital capacity) was found in districts with declining ambient NO2. Populations did not differ in respect of anthropometric factors, passive smoking or socioeconomic status. A birth cohort from this study population which was followed up to age 18 confirmed the improved growth of MEF25 with decline in NO2, while the improved growth of forced vital capacity was more related to decline in SO2. This study provides the first evidence that improvements in the outdoor air quality during the 1980s are correlated with health benefits, and suggest that adverse effects on lung function related to ambient air pollution are reversible before adulthood. Improvement of small airway functions appeared to be more dependent on reductions of NO2 than reduction in SO2 and TSP.

Introduction

With the improved sensitivity of exposure and health indicators, lower levels of air pollution can be linked to adverse health effects. Increasing costs of control raise the question if there is still a health benefit from reduction of indicator pollutants, as assessed by monitoring networks.

Air pollution, as documented by data on nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), and total suspended particles (TSP), markedly decreased in Austria in the 1980s. Especially Linz, the county capital of Upper Austria, in these years changed from a heavily polluted industrial town to a modern urban city. Nevertheless, studies on lung function of school children in Linz (Neuberger et al., 1995a) still detected health effects attributable to local air pollution levels. The above-mentioned nagging question prompted us to reanalyse previously published data on 15 045 school children and perform a follow up of lung functions.

Section snippets

Persons and methods

Children examined and methods used have been described previously, together with cross-sectional results (Neuberger et al (1995a), Neuberger et al (1995b)). In short, 15 045 (85%) of all elementary and high school children participated 1985–90 in screening examinations including standardized spirometry. TSP, SO2, NO2 and O3 concentration isolines for winters and summers were calculated for all schools from data of 9 monitoring stations. Austrian law requires residents to use the nearest primary

Results and discussion

While SO2 and TSP levels decreased fairly uniformly in all districts of Linz (annual mean SO2 in 1985: 40 μg/m3 compared to about 10 μg/m3 in the 1990s) this was not the case with NO2. In the districts where NO2 reductions from industry and car technology were counterbalanced by the increase in motor traffic, ambient concentrations stayed nearly unchanged while other districts showed a pronounced decrease (Fig. 1). In the previous cross-sectional study (Neuberger et al., 1995a), endexspiratory

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Municipality of Linz (Departments of Health and Environment) for providing valuable data and support.

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