| 21. |
- Fuks, Kateryna B., et al.
(författare)
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Arterial blood pressure and long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution : an analysis in the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE)
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives. - : National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). - 0091-6765 .- 1552-9924. ; 122:9, s. 896-905
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Long-term exposure to air pollution is hypothesized to elevate arterial blood pressure (BP). The existing evidence is scarce and country-specific. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the cross-sectional association of long-term traffic-related air pollution with BP and prevalent hypertension in European populations. METHODS: Fifteen population-based cohorts, participating in the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE), were analysed. Residential exposure to particulate matter and nitrogen oxides was modelled with land use regression using a uniform protocol. Traffic exposure was assessed with traffic indicator variables. We analysed systolic and diastolic BP in participants medicated and non-medicated with BP lowering medication (BPLM) separately, adjusting for personal and area-level risk factors and environmental noise. Prevalent hypertension was defined as ≥ 140 mmHg systolic, or ≥ 90 mmHg diastolic BP, or intake of BPLM. We combined cohort-specific results using random-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS: In the main meta-analysis of 113,926 participants, traffic load on major roads within 100 m of the residence was associated with increased systolic and diastolic BP in non-medicated participants (0.35 mmHg [95% CI: 0.02-0.68] and 0.22 mmHg [95% CI: 0.04-0.40] per 4,000,000 vehicles × m/day, respectively). The estimated odds ratio for prevalent hypertension was 1.05 [95% CI: 0.99-1.11] per 4,000,000 vehicles × m/day. Modelled air pollutants and BP were not clearly associated. CONCLUSIONS: In this first comprehensive meta-analysis of European population-based cohorts we observed a weak positive association of high residential traffic exposure with BP in non-medicated participants, and an elevated OR for prevalent hypertension. The relationship of modelled air pollutants with BP was inconsistent.
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| 22. |
- Fuks, Kateryna B., et al.
(författare)
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Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and traffic noise and incident hypertension in seven cohorts of the European study of cohorts for air pollution effects (ESCAPE)
- 2017
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Ingår i: European Heart Journal. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0195-668X .- 1522-9645. ; 38:13, s. 983-990
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aims We investigated whether traffic-related air pollution and noise are associated with incident hypertension in European cohorts. Methods and results We included seven cohorts of the European study of cohorts for air pollution effects (ESCAPE). We modelled concentrations of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <= 2.5 mu m (PM2.5), <= 10 mu m (PM10), >2.5, and <= 10 mu m (PMcoarse), soot (PM2.5 absorbance), and nitrogen oxides at the addresses of participants with land use regression. Residential exposure to traffic noise was modelled at the facade according to the EU Directive 2002/49/EC. We assessed hypertension as (i) self-reported and (ii) measured (systolic BP >= 140mmHg or diastolic BP >= 90mmHg or intake of BP lowering medication (BPLM). We used Poisson regression with robust variance estimation to analyse associations of traffic-related exposures with incidence of hypertension, controlling for relevant confounders, and combined the results from individual studies with random-effects meta-analysis. Among 41 072 participants free of self-reported hypertension at baseline, 6207 (15.1%) incident cases occurred within 5-9 years of follow-up. Incidence of self-reported hypertension was positively associated with PM2.5 (relative risk (RR) 1.22 [95%-confidence interval (CI): 1.08; 1.37] per 5 mu g/m(3)) and PM2.5 absorbance (RR 1.13 [95% CI: 1.02; 1.24] per 10(-5) m(-1)). These estimates decreased slightly upon adjustment for road traffic noise. Road traffic noise was weakly positively associated with the incidence of self-reported hypertension. Among 10 896 participants at risk, 3549 new cases of measured hypertension occurred. We found no clear associations with measured hypertension. Conclusion Long-term residential exposures to air pollution and noise are associated with increased incidence of self-reported hypertension.
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| 23. |
- Grant, Marcus, et al.
(författare)
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Cities and health: an evolving global conversation
- 2017
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Ingår i: Cities and Health. - : Informa UK Limited. - 2374-8834 .- 2374-8842. ; 1:1, s. 1-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Cities and Health journal sees its launch in 2017. Looking back over half a century of growth and global expansion in economic activity, although there have been societal benefits, negative impacts are starting to take their toll on planetary resources and human health. As we enter what is being termed The Anthropocene, the city is becoming the preferred habitat for humanity. The imprint of city lifestyles, in terms of both resource use and waste, is found across the globe, threatening the ecosystem services that support our health. In cities themselves, due to risks and challenges to health, we are witnessing a rise in non-communicable disease, twinned with infectious disease for the many who live increasingly in informal or slum urban development. High levels of health inequity are found within urban populations. The resultant health problems are placing increasing strain on health services, with pressure only set to increase due to continuing urbanization and ageing populations. Evidence increasingly demonstrates that many aspects of city and neighbourhood form, urban and transport design, and residential environments play an important role in mediating health and health equity outcomes. The new journal Cities & Health is being launched to support political, academic and technical leadership and transdisciplinarity in this field. For this endeavour we will need to re-examine the nature of evidence required before we act; to explore how academics, policy-makers, practitioners and communities can best collaborate using the city as a laboratory for change; and to develop capacity building for healthier place-making at professional and community levels.
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| 24. |
- Grellier, James, et al.
(författare)
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BlueHealth : A study programme protocol for mapping and quantifying the potential benefits to public health and well-being from Europe's blue spaces
- 2017
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Ingår i: BMJ Open. - : BMJ. - 2044-6055. ; 7:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction Proximity and access to water have long been central to human culture and accordingly deliver countless societal benefits. Over 200 million people live on Europe's coastline, and aquatic environments are the top recreational destination in the region. In terms of public health, interactions with 'blue space' (eg, coasts, rivers, lakes) are often considered solely in terms of risk (eg, drowning, microbial pollution). Exposure to blue space can, however, promote health and well-being and prevent disease, although underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Aims and methods The BlueHealth project aims to understand the relationships between exposure to blue space and health and well-being, to map and quantify the public health impacts of changes to both natural blue spaces and associated urban infrastructure in Europe, and to provide evidence-based information to policymakers on how to maximise health benefits associated with interventions in and around aquatic environments. To achieve these aims, an evidence base will be created through systematic reviews, analyses of secondary data sets and analyses of new data collected through a bespoke international survey and a wide range of community-level interventions. We will also explore how to deliver the benefits associated with blue spaces to those without direct access through the use of virtual reality. Scenarios will be developed that allow the evaluation of health impacts in plausible future societal contexts and changing environments. BlueHealth will develop key inputs into policymaking and land/water-use planning towards more salutogenic and sustainable uses of blue space, particularly in urban areas. Ethics and dissemination Throughout the BlueHealth project, ethics review and approval are obtained for all relevant aspects of the study by the local ethics committees prior to any work being initiated and an ethics expert has been appointed to the project advisory board. So far, ethical approval has been obtained for the BlueHealth International Survey and for community-level interventions taking place in Spain, Italy and the UK. Engagement of stakeholders, including the public, involves citizens in many aspects of the project. Results of all individual studies within the BlueHealth project will be published with open access. After full anonymisation and application of any measures necessary to prevent disclosure, data generated in the project will be deposited into open data repositories of the partner institutions, in line with a formal data management plan. Other knowledge and tools developed in the project will be made available via the project website (www.bluehealth2020.eu). Project results will ultimately provide key inputs to planning and policy relating to blue space, further stimulating the integration of environmental and health considerations into decision-making, such that blue infrastructure is developed across Europe with both public health and the environment in mind.
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| 25. |
- Guxens, Monica, et al.
(författare)
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Air pollution exposure during pregnancy and childhood autistic traits in four European population-based cohort studies : the ESCAPE project
- 2016
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Ingår i: Environmental Health Perspectives. - Stockholm : Karolinska Institutet, Dept of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. - 0091-6765 .- 1552-9924.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Prenatal exposure to air pollutants has been suggested as a possible etiologic factor for the occurrence of autism spectrum disorder. Objectives: We aimed to assess whether prenatal air pollution exposure is associated with childhood autistic traits in the general population. Methods: Ours was a collaborative study of four European population-based birth/child cohorts— CATSS (Sweden), Generation R (the Netherlands), GASPII (Italy), and INMA (Spain). Nitrogen oxides (NO2, NOx) and particulate matter (PM) with diameters of ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5), ≤ 10 μm (PM10), and between 2.5 and 10 μm (PMcoarse), and PM2.5 absorbance were estimated for birth addresses by land-use regression models based on monitoring campaigns performed between 2008 and 2011. Levels were extrapolated back in time to exact pregnancy periods. We quantitatively assessed autistic traits when the child was between 4 and 10 years of age. Children were classified with autistic traits within the borderline/clinical range and within the clinical range using validated cut-offs. Adjusted cohort-specific effect estimates were combined using random-effects meta-analysis. Results: A total of 8,079 children were included. Prenatal air pollution exposure was not associated with autistic traits within the borderline/clinical range (odds ratio = 0.94; 95% CI: 0.81, 1.10 per each 10‑μg/m3 increase in NO2 pregnancy levels). Similar results were observed in the different cohorts, for the other pollutants, and in assessments of children with autistic traits within the clinical range or children with autistic traits as a quantitative score. Conclusions: Prenatal exposure to NO2 and PM was not associated with autistic traits in children from 4 to 10 years of age in four European population-based birth/child cohort studies.
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| 26. |
- Halonen, Jaana I., et al.
(författare)
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A call for urgent action to safeguard our planet and our health in line with the helsinki declaration
- 2021
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Ingår i: Environmental Research. - : Elsevier. - 0013-9351 .- 1096-0953. ; 193
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission launched a report introducing a novel approach called Planetary Health and proposed a concept, a strategy and a course of action. To discuss the concept of Planetary Health in the context of Europe, a conference entitled: "Europe That Protects: Safeguarding Our Planet, Safeguarding Our Health" was held in Helsinki in December 2019. The conference participants concluded with a need for action to support Planetary Health during the 2020s. The Helsinki Declaration emphasizes the urgency to act as scientific evidence shows that human activities are causing climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, overuse of natural resources and pollution. They threaten the health and safety of human kind.Global, regional, national, local and individual initiatives are called for and multidisciplinary and multisectorial actions and measures are needed. A framework for an action plan is suggested that can be modified for local needs. Accordingly, a shift from fragmented approaches to policy and practice towards systematic actions will promote human health and health of the planet. Systems thinking will feed into conserving nature and biodiversity, and into halting climate change.The Planetary Health paradigm ‒ the health of human civilization and the state of natural systems on which it depends ‒ must become the driver for all policies.
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| 27. |
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| 28. |
- Jacquemin, Benedicte, et al.
(författare)
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Ambient Air Pollution and Adult Asthma Incidence in Six European Cohorts (ESCAPE)
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives. - : Environmental Health Perspectives. - 0091-6765 .- 1552-9924. ; 123:6, s. 613-621
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Short-term exposure to air pollution has adverse effects among patients with asthma, but whether long-term exposure to air pollution is a cause of adult-onset asthma is unclear. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the association between air pollution and adult onset asthma. METHODS: Asthma incidence was prospectively assessed in six European cohorts. Exposures studied were annual average concentrations at home addresses for nitrogen oxides assessed for 23,704 participants (including 1,257 incident cases) and particulate matter (PM) assessed for 17,909 participants through ESCAPE land-use regression models and traffic exposure indicators. Meta-analyses of cohort-specific logistic regression on asthma incidence were performed. Models were adjusted for age, sex, overweight, education, and smoking and included city/area within each cohort as a random effect. RESULTS: In this longitudinal analysis, asthma incidence was positively, but not significantly, associated with all exposure metrics, except for PMcoarse. Positive associations of borderline significance were observed for nitrogen dioxide [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.10; 95% CI: 0.99, 1.21 per 10 mu g/m(3); p = 0.10] and nitrogen oxides (adjusted OR = 1.04; 95% CI: 0.99, 1.08 per 20 mu g/m(3); p = 0.08). Nonsignificant positive associations were estimated for PM10 (adjusted OR = 1.04; 95% CI: 0.88, 1.23 per 10 mu g/m(3)), PM2.5 (adjusted OR = 1.04; 95% CI: 0.88, 1.23 per 5 mu g/m(3)), PM2.5absorbance (adjusted OR = 1.06; 95% CI: 0.95, 1.19 per 10(-5)/m), traffic load (adjusted OR = 1.10; 95% CI: 0.93, 1.30 per 4 million vehicles x meters/day on major roads in a 100-m buffer), and traffic intensity (adjusted OR = 1.10; 95% CI: 0.93, 1.30 per 5,000 vehicles/day on the nearest road). A nonsignificant negative association was estimated for PMcoarse (adjusted OR = 0.98; 95% CI: 0.87, 1.14 per 5 mu g/m(3)). CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest a deleterious effect of ambient air pollution on asthma incidence in adults. Further research with improved personal-level exposure assessment (vs. residential exposure assessment only) and phenotypic characterization is needed.
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| 29. |
- Jones, Marc V., et al.
(författare)
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Psycho-physiological responses of repeated exposure to natural and urban environments
- 2021
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Ingår i: Landscape and Urban Planning. - : Elsevier. - 0169-2046 .- 1872-6062. ; 209
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ‘dose’ of nature required for health benefits, and whether repeat visits to the same environment consistently confer health benefits, is unclear. We sought to provide proof of concept for testing this. Data were collected on repeated visits to either a natural or pleasant urban environment from 41 adults on three days, and at one follow-up assessment. Participants completed baseline profiling, then attended; three repeated visits to either an urban (n = 17) or natural (n = 24) environment; and a 24-hour post-exposure final session. In each environment, participants undertook a 30-minute walk at a self-directed pace. Measures included mood, cognitive function, restorative experience and salivary cortisol. Walking in both environments conferred benefits for mood, with additional improvements in restorative experience observed from visiting the natural environment. There was no change in response to visits to the natural environment over time, suggesting benefits may be consistently realized.
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| 30. |
- Kahlmeier, Sonja, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing the Policy Environment for Active Mobility in Cities—Development and Feasibility of the PASTA Cycling and Walking Policy Environment Score
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI AG. - 1661-7827 .- 1660-4601. ; 18:3, s. 986-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The importance of setting a policy focus on promoting cycling and walking as sustainable and healthy modes of transport is increasingly recognized. However, to date a science-driven scoring system to assess the policy environment for cycling and walking is lacking. In this study, spreadsheet-based scoring systems for cycling and walking were developed, including six dimensions (cycling/walking culture, social acceptance, perception of traffic safety, advocacy, politics and urban planning). Feasibility was tested using qualitative data from pre-specified sections of semi-standardized interview and workshop reports from a European research project in seven cities, assessed independently by two experts. Disagreements were resolved by discussions of no more than 75 minutes per city. On the dimension “perception of traffic safety”, quantitative panel data were used. While the interrater agreement was fair, feasibility was confirmed in general. Validity testing against social norms towards active travel, modal split and network length was encouraging for the policy area of cycling. Rating the policy friendliness for cycling and walking separately was found to be appropriate, as different cities received the highest scores for each. Replicating this approach in a more standardized way would pave the way towards a transparent, evidence-based system for benchmarking policy approaches of cities towards cycling and walking.
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