Particulate matter air pollution components and incidence of cancers of the stomach and the upper aerodigestive tract in the European Study of Cohorts of Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE)

Introduction: Previous analysis from the large European multicentre ESCAPE study showed an association of ambient particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM2.5) air pollution exposure at residence with the incidence of gastric cancer. It is unclear which components of PM are most relevant for gastric and also upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) cancer and some...

Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and incidence of brain tumor: The European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE)

Background. Epidemiological evidence on the association between ambient air pollution and brain tumor risk is sparse and inconsistent. Methods. In 12 cohorts from 6 European countries, individual estimates of annual mean air pollution levels at the baseline residence were estimated by standardized land-use regression models developed within the...

Spatial variations and development of land use regression models of oxidative potential in ten European study areas

Oxidative potential (OP) has been suggested as a health-relevant measure of air pollution. Little information is available about OP spatial variation and the possibility to model its spatial variability. Our aim was to measure the spatial variation of OP within and between 10 European study areas. The second aim was to develop land use...

Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and incidence of postmenopausal breast cancer in 15 European cohorts within the ESCAPE project

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological evidence on the association between ambient air pollution and breast cancer risk is inconsistent. OBJECTIVE: We examined the association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and incidence of postmenopausal breast cancer in European women. METHODS: In 15 cohorts from nine European countries, individual...

Elemental constituents of particulate matter and newborn’s size in eight European cohorts

Background: The health effects of suspended particulate matter (PM) may depend on its chemical composition. Associations between maternal exposure to chemical constituents of PM and newborn’s size have been little examined. Objective: We aimed to investigate the associations of exposure to elemental constituents of PM with term low birth weight ...

Spatial variations of levoglucosan in four European study areas

Relatively little is known about long term effects of wood smoke on population health. A wood combustion marker - levoglucosan - was measured using a standardized sampling and measurement method in four European study areas (Oslo, The Netherlands, Munich/Augsburg, Catalonia) to assess within and between study area spatial variation. Levoglucosan...

Natural-cause mortality and long-term exposure to particle components: An Analysis of 19 European cohorts within the multi-center ESCAPE project

Background: Studies have shown associations between mortality and long-term exposure to particulate matter air pollution. Few cohort studies have estimated the effects of the elemental composition of particulate matter on mortality. oBjectives: Our aim was to study the association between natural-cause mortality and long-term exposure to...

Spatial variation of PM elemental composition between and within 20 European study areas - Results of the ESCAPE project

An increasing number of epidemiological studies suggest that adverse health effects of air pollution may be related to particulate matter (PM) composition, particularly trace metals. However, we lack comprehensive data on the spatial distribution of these elements.We measured PM<inf>2.5</inf> and PM<inf>10</inf> in twenty study areas across...

Development of land use regression models for elemental, organic carbon, PAH, and hopanes/steranes in 10 ESCAPE/TRANSPHORM European study areas

Land use regression (LUR) models have been used to model concentrations of mainly traffic-related air pollutants (nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM) mass or absorbance). Few LUR models are published of PM composition, whereas the interest in health effects related to particle composition is increasing. The aim of our study was to...

Spatial variations of PAH, hopanes/steranes and EC/OC concentrations within and between European study areas

Limited information is available on the contribution of organic components in particulate matter to health effects related to fine particles. Spatial variability of specific fine particle organic components has not been assessed with consistent methods. The aim of this paper is to assess spatial variation of organic components of fine particles...

Elemental composition of particulate matter and the association with lung function

BACKGROUND: Negative effects of long-term exposure to particulate matter (PM) on lung function have been shown repeatedly. Spatial differences in the composition and toxicity of PM may explain differences in observed effect sizes between studies. METHODS: We conducted a multicenter study in 5 European birth cohorts - BAMSE (Sweden), GINIplus and...

Associations between particulate matter elements and early-life pneumonia in seven birth cohorts: Results from the ESCAPE and TRANSPHORM projects

Evidence for a role of long-term particulate matter exposure on acute respiratory infections is growing. However, which components of particulate matter may be causative remains largely unknown. We assessed associations between eight particulate matter elements and early-life pneumonia in seven birth cohort studies (Ntotal=15,980): BAMSE (Sweden...

Comparison of the performances of land use regression modelling and dispersion modelling in estimating small-scale variations in long-term air pollution concentrations in a Dutch urban area

The performance of a Land Use Regression (LUR) model and a dispersion model (URBIS - URBis Information System) was compared in a Dutch urban area. For the Rijnmond area, i.e. Rotterdam and surroundings, nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations for 2001 were estimated for nearly 70 000 centroids of a regular grid of 100 × 100 m.A LUR...

The joint association of air pollution and noise from road traffic with cardiovascular mortality in a cohort study

Associations between cardiovascular mortality and air pollution and noise together were investigated. Methods: Data from the ongoing Netherlands Cohort Study on Diet and Cancer (120 852 subjects; follow-up 1987-1996) were used. Cox proportional hazard analyses were conducted for the association between cardiovascular mortality and exposure to...

Long-term effects of traffic-related air pollution on mortality in a Dutch cohort (NLCS-AIR study)

Background: Several studies have found an effect on mortality of between-city contrasts in long-term exposure to air pollution. The effect of within-city contrasts is still poorly understood. Objectives: We studied the association between long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and mortality in a Dutch cohort. Methods: We used data...

Long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and lung cancer risk

Background: Most studies on the association between lung cancer and air pollution have investigated mortality. There have been few studies of lung cancer incidence. Methods: We used data from the ongoing Netherlands Cohort Study on Diet and Cancer for 114,378 subjects with follow-up from September 1986 to December 1997. Exposure to black smoke,...