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The relevance of commuter and work/school exposure in an epidemiological study on traffic-related air pollution

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Title The relevance of commuter and work/school exposure in an epidemiological study on traffic-related air pollution
 
Creator RAGETTLI, MS
PHULERIA, HC
TSAI, MY
SCHINDLER, C
DE NAZELLE, A
DUCRET-STICH, RE
INEICHEN, A
PEREZ, L
BRAUN-FAHRLANDER, C
PROBST-HENSCH, N
KUNZLI, N
 
Subject DAILY MOBILITY
MODELS
NO2
SIMULATION
IMPACT
AREAS
air pollution
bias
inhalation dose
mobility
NO2
transport
 
Description Exposure during transport and at non-residential locations is ignored in most epidemiological studies of traffic-related air pollution. We investigated the impact of separately estimating NO2 long-term outdoor exposures at home, work/school, and while commuting on the association between this marker of exposure and potential health outcomes. We used spatially and temporally resolved commuter route data and model-based NO2 estimates of a population sample in Basel, Switzerland, to assign individual NO2-exposure estimates of increasing complexity, namely (1) home outdoor concentration; (2) time-weighted home and work/school concentrations; and (3) time-weighted concentration incorporating home, work/school and commute. On the basis of their covariance structure, we estimated the expectable relative differences in the regression slopes between a quantitative health outcome and our measures of individual NO2 exposure using a standard measurement error model. The traditional use of home outdoor NO2 alone indicated a 12% (95% Cl: 11-14%) underestimation of related health effects as compared with integrating both home and work/school outdoor concentrations. Mean contribution of commuting to total weekly exposure was small (3.2%; range 0.1-13.5%). Thus, ignoring commute in the total population may not significantly underestimate health effects as compared with the model combining home and work/school. For individuals commuting between Basel-City and Basel-Country, ignoring commute may produce, however, a significant attenuation bias of 4% (95% Cl: 4-5%). Our results illustrate the importance of including work/school locations in assessments of long-term exposures to traffic-related air pollutants such as NO2. Information on individuals' commuting behavior may further improve exposure estimates, especially for subjects having lengthy commutes along major transportation routes.
 
Publisher NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
 
Date 2016-01-15T06:34:45Z
2016-01-15T06:34:45Z
2015
 
Type Article
 
Identifier JOURNAL OF EXPOSURE SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, 25(5)474-481
1559-0631
1559-064X
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/jes.2014.83
http://dspace.library.iitb.ac.in/jspui/handle/100/17945
 
Language en