Gesundheitliche Wirkungen von Feinstaub: Epidemiologie der Langzeiteffekte

Abstract

Health Impact of Exposure to Suspended Particulate Matter. Epidemiology of Long-Term Effects Chronic effects of ambient air pollutants are studied by cross- sectional and cohort designs including adjustment for confounder on an individual basis. This review summarizes the state of the art about chronic effects of ambient particulate air pollutants. A majority of regional cross-sectional studies show a higher risk for non-allergic, infectious respiratory diseases such as bronchitis in children who grew up in highly polluted areas. Impaired lung function was only shown in few of these studies, whereas in adults impairments were homogeneously seen in cross-sectional studies. A 10 µg/m 3 TSP or PM10 increase in annual means in- creases the prevalence of bronchitis in children by 20 - 40%. According to North-American cohort studies total mortality can be estimated to increase by 24 - 50% for PM10 (per 50 µg/m3 increase), 17 - 25% for PM 2.5 (per 25 µg/m3 increase), and 10 - 50% for sulfates (per 15 µg/m3 increase). Prevalence of bronchitis and infectious respiratory health in East German children de- creased along with the improvement of air quality. Further studies on chronic effects including an improved expo- sure assessment are needed to quantify health effects more pre- cisely. These future studies should include a higher number of areas with different air pollution levels. They should help to set up more evidence-based regulations for the control of air pollu- tants and to improve the evaluation of clean air acts.