Asthma and lower airway diseaseIncreased asthma and respiratory symptoms in children exposed to petrochemical pollution
Section snippets
Study location
The study was conducted during 2005-2006 in La Plata, Argentina, a city of 702,449 inhabitants located next to Argentina's main oil refinery (total crude oil distillation capacity, 38,000 m3/d). Six petrochemical plants in the region produce diverse compounds, such as aromatics (benzene, toluene, and xylenes), aliphatic solvents (n-pentane, n-hexane, and n-heptane), polypropylene, polybutene, maleic anhydride, cyclohexane, methanol, methyl tertiary butyl ether, and petroleum coke. This
Pollutant levels
The concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and PM0.5 were higher in the industrial and urban areas than in the semirural control area (Table II), with no differences between the 2 polluted regions (Table II). Concentrations of VOCs were also higher in both polluted regions than in the 2 relatively nonpolluted regions (Table II). The concentrations of hexane, cyclohexane, benzene, and toluene were particularly high in the industrial region. The total concentration of the VOCs analyzed was 4-fold higher
Discussion
The data from the present study demonstrate that living in an area of the city of La Plata, Argentina with higher levels of PM and VOCs in the ambient environment was associated with worse respiratory health in children aged 6 to 12 years. This effect was predominantly seen in children living in an industrial region exposed to pollutants from the main petrochemical complex. Children living in this area had a higher prevalence of asthma and asthma-like symptoms and a greater number of acute
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The Scientific Research Commission of the Province of Buenos Aires (CIC-PBA) and the National University of La Plata financed the present study.
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: N. Cianni and A. Porta have received research support from the Comision de Investigaciones Cientificas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires and from Universidad Nacional de la Plata (Argentina). The rest of the authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.