Air Pollution Exposure Distributions of Adult Urban Populations in Europe: The "Expolis"-Study. M. J. Jantunen, O. Hänninen, K. Saarela, M. Maroni, K. Katsouyanni, E. Lebret, N. Kuenzli, R. Sram, and D. Zmirou; KTL, Division of Environmental Health, P.O. Box 95, FIN-70701 Kuopio, Finland; VTT, Chemical Technology, Espoo, Finland; U. of Milan, Institute of Occupational Health, Italy; U. of Athens, Medical School, Athens, Greece; RIVM, Dept of Chronic Diseases and Environmental Epid, Bilthoven, The Netherlands; U. of Basel, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, Basel, Switzerland; Institute of Genetic Ecotoxicology, Prague, The Czech Republic; University Joseph Fourier, Medical School, Grenoble, France
After recent epidemiological investigations, ambient air pollution, especially PM10, is estimated to annually increase respiratory and cardiovascular mortality by tens of thousands of cases in Europe and significantly reduce the length of life in populations. The health effects of air pollutants are not caused by their levels at fixed outdoor monitoring sites, but instead by personal exposures of the affected individuals in their daily activities. EXPOLIS-study focuses on working age urban populations in Europe, exposed to air pollutants in their homes, workplaces and other common urban microenvironments (streets, shopping, etc), and commuting between them. The urban areas selected for EXPOLIS-study are Athens, Basel, Grenoble, Helsinki, Milan and Prague. The objectives of the EXPOLIS-study are: (i) to measure the distributions of exposures of European adult urban populations to major air pollutants, (ii) to analyse the personal, indoor and outdoor environmental, and communal determinants of these exposures, and (iii) to develop a probabilistic simulation technique for predicting air pollution exposure distributions in defined subpopulations and/or alternative exposure scenarios. The Expolis pilot took place in May-June 1996, and the field work of EXPOLIS will continue from August 1996 to June 1997. The pollutants studied in EXPOLIS are PM2.5, VOCs and CO, measured by personal and microenvironmentals monitors. In addition, time-location-activity data and questionnaire data concerning home and workplace characteristics, daily commuting and personal behavior are collected from the 500 individuals being investigated.
Work supported by EU Contract N0 ENV4-CT96-0202 (DG 12 - DTEE) and Academy of Finland Contract N036586.