Informativeness of Some Hematological Indices for the Evaluation of Influence of Low-Degree Atmospheric Pollution on Health

Abstract

ISEE-0347 Background and Objective: Considering that blood tissue is one of the most sensitive to changes in levels of atmospheric pollution, we set ourselves the aim of making comparative analysis of some hematological indices in clinically healthy children exposed to the influence of low-degree but of different levels atmospheric pollution. Methods: In 1998 we investigated the first group–100 children at the age of 12.68 ± 0.56 years (X ± SD) from Dimitrovgrad living at average annual levels of TSPM between 0.312–0.089 mg/m3 and SO2 between 166.90–3.30 μg/m3; The second group (94 children 12.8 ± 0.7 y from the same schools), living at levels of pollution respectively 0.206–0.066 mg/m3 (TSPM) and 146.16–1.44 (SO2), were investigated in 2003. For both groups we studied also the inactive forms of hemoglobin (methemoglobin, carboxyhemoglobin, sulphhemoglobin). All children were studied in the first decade of May in specialized laboratories of Medical University–Plovdiv. Results: There were reliably lower levels of the erythrocytes (X ± SD: 4.52 ± 0.37 vs. 4.77 ± 0.41 × 1012/l, P = 0.000), hemoglobin (127.87 ± 7,87 vs. 132.02 ± 8.43 g/l, P = 0.000), thrombocytes (268.59 ± 58.60 vs. 312.37 ± 73.56 × 109/l) and higher number of leucocytes in children living at higher levels of atmospheric pollution (6.97 ± 1.61 vs. 6.50 ± 1.59 × 109/l, P = 0.042). No statistically significant differences were found in the levels of inactive forms of hemoglobin between the two groups of children. Conclusion: Prolonged exposure to low-degree atmospheric pollution suppresses hemopoesis. Standard hematological tests are good indicator for health evaluation of the influence of low-degree atmospheric pollution but the inactive forms of hemoglobin as indices are not informative enough.