Future research needs associated with the assessment of potential human health risks from exposure to toxic ambient air pollutants.

Möller, Lennart; Schuetzle, Dennis; Autrup, Herman

doi:10.1289/ehp.102-1566924

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…(20) The guidelines provide procedures for the preparation of the health risk assessments required under California's Air Toxics "Hot Spots" Information and Assessment Act of 1987. 4 This law established a statewide program for the inventory of air toxics emissions from individual facilities as well as requirements for risk assessment and public notification of potential health risk. (20) Cancer risks are assessed using inhalation unit risk (IUR) estimates in ( g /m 3 ) Ϫ 1 for each carcinogenic compound.…”

Section: Application Of Toxicity Information To Assess Health Risksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2,3) Most known health effects of hazardous air pollutants are derived primarily from animal and occupational studies, (2,3) and there is a paucity of epidemiological studies evaluating the potential health risks of chronic, low-level exposures experienced by the general public. (4,5) Nevertheless, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that as many as 2,500 cancer cases per year may be associated with exposure to outdoor concentrations of 45 of the 188 hazardous air pollutants (6) although this estimate has been criticized for being too high. (7) Nearly 50 million people live in locations where estimated ambient concentrations of one or more hazardous air pollutants exceed levels of concern for noncancer health effects in humans.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Air Toxics and Health Risks in California: The Public Health Implications of Outdoor Concentrations

et al. 2000

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Of the 188 hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) listed in the Clean Air Act, only a handful have information on human health effects, derived primarily from animal and occupational studies. Lack of consistent monitoring data on ambient air toxics makes it difficult to assess the extent of low-level, chronic, ambient exposures to HAPs that could affect human health, and limits attempts to prioritize and evaluate policy initiatives for emissions reduction. Modeled outdoor HAP concentration estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Cumulative Exposure Project were used to characterize the extent of the air toxics problem in California for the base year of 1990. These air toxics concentration estimates were used with chronic toxicity data to estimate cancer and noncancer hazards for individual HAPs and the risks posed by multiple pollutants. Although hazardous air pollutants are ubiquitous in the environment, potential cancer and noncancer health hazards posed by ambient exposures are geographically concentrated in three urbanized areas and in a few rural counties. This analysis estimated a median excess individual cancer risk of 2.7E-4 for all air toxics concentrations and 8600 excess lifetime cancer cases, 70% of which were attributable to four pollutants: polycyclic organic matter, 1,3 butadiene, formaldehyde, and benzene. For noncancer effects, the analysis estimated a total hazard index representing the combined effect of all HAPs considered. Each pollutant contributes to the index a ratio of estimated concentration to reference concentration. The median value of the index across census tracts was 17, due primarily to acrolein and chromium concentration estimates. On average, HAP concentrations and cancer and noncancer health risks originate mostly from area and mobile source emissions, although there are several locations in the state where point sources account for a large portion of estimated concentrations and health risks. Risk estimates from this study can provide guidance for prioritizing research, monitoring, and regulatory intervention activities to reduce potential hazards to the general population. Improved ambient monitoring efforts can help clarify uncertainties inherent in this analysis.

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Section: Application Of Toxicity Information To Assess Health Risksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air Toxics and Health Risks in California: The Public Health Implications of Outdoor Concentrations

et al. 2000

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“…The International Agency for Cancer Research [1999] has also classified BD as carcinogenic in experimental animals and probably carcinogenic to humans (group 2A). Epidemiological studies reveal associations between occupational exposure to BD and increased risk of leukemia [Matanoski et al, 1997;Sathiakumar et al, 1998], and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that BD is responsible for more cancer cases attributable to exposure to vehicle emissions than are diesel particles, benzene, and formaldehyde together [Moller et al, 1994]. Exposure to BD results in various genotoxic effects, including DNA adducts [Jackson et al, 2000;Zhao et al, 2001].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Markers of individual susceptibility and DNA repair rate in workers exposed to xenobiotics in a tire plant

Vodička

Kumar

Štětina

et al. 2004

Environ and Mol Mutagen

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Workers employed in tire plants are exposed to a variety of xenobiotics, such as 1,3-butadiene (BD), soots containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and other organic chemicals (e.g., styrene). In the present study, we investigated markers of genotoxicity [chromosomal aberrations (CAs) and single-strand breaks (SSBs)] in a cohort of 110 tire plant workers engaged in jobs with different levels of xenobiotic exposure in relation to various polymorphisms in genes coding for biotransformation enzymes (CYP1A1, CYP2E1, EPHX1, GSTM1, GSTP1, and GSTT1) and in genes involved in DNA repair (XPD exon 23, XPG exon 15, XPC exon 15, XRCC1 exon 10, and XRCC3 exon 7). In addition, the expression of CYP2E1, a gene playing a key role in BD metabolism, was determined by real-time PCR in peripheral blood lymphocytes, and the capacity of lymphocytes to repair gamma-ray-induced SSBs and to convert 8-oxoguanine in HeLa cell DNA into SSBs was assessed using in vitro assays. No positive associations were detected between the CA frequency or SSB induction and levels of workplace exposure; however, a nonsignificant twofold higher irradiation-specific DNA repair rate was found among highly exposed workers. In evaluations conducted with the markers of individual susceptibility, workers with low-EPHX1-activity genotypes exhibited a significantly higher CA frequency as compared to those with medium and high-EPHX1-activity genotypes (P = 0.050). CA frequencies were significantly lower in individuals homozygous for the XPD exon 23 variant allele in comparison to those with the wild-type CC genotype (P = 0.003). Interestingly, CAs were higher in individuals with higher CYP2E1 expression levels, but the association was nonsignificant (P = 0.097). The results from this study suggest the importance of evaluating markers of individual susceptibility, since they may modulate genotoxic effects induced by occupational exposure to xenobiotics.

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“…The traditional way of describing these relationships is by measuring the concentration of chemicals in different environmental compartments using empirical or modeling efforts, taking into account human exposure estimates to quantify the dose (Lorber, 2001;Moller et al, 1994). Recently, due to both an increase in analytical capacity and a change in social awareness towards pollution exposure, there has been a rapid increase in the development and application of methods in human biomonitoring (HBM) as a tool to evaluate exposure to and effects of environmental pollution by measurements in human tissue or body fluid samples.…”

Section: Human Biomonitoring (Hbm) In Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Human Biomonitoring and the Inspire Directive: Spatial Data as Link for Environment and Health Research

Smolders

Casteleyn

Joas³

et al. 2008

Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B

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Recently, there has been a rapid gain of interest in the availability, applicability, and integration of different types of spatial data for environment and health issues. The INSPIRE Directive (Directive 2007/2/EC) aims at providing better and easily accessible spatial information in Europe for the formulation and implementation of community policy on the environment by triggering the creation of a European spatial information infrastructure that delivers integrated spatial information services to potential users. Human biomonitoring (HBM) significantly contributes to the already existing data on environment and health because of its specific nature of providing information on the internal dose of chemicals rather than their mere presence in different environmental compartments. However, due to the intrinsic nature of HBM data, a number of issues need to be dealt with if HBM data are to be used to its full capacity in a geographic information systems (GIS) environment and within the INSPIRE directive. The current article highlights some of these issues, and discusses a number of options to improve the geographical relevance of HBM data for their optimal use within the INSPIRE Directive framework. The main aim of this publication is to illustrate that HBM has a significant contribution to make to the INSPIRE Directive, although some kind of data aggregation will be necessary to protect individual privacy. If HBM data wants to have a significant contribution to spatial information used to assist policymaking and on the surveillance or tracking of the direct or indirect impact of such policies, the HBM data need to be compatible with other data collected within the other themes of the INSPIRE Directive.

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Future research needs associated with the assessment of potential human health risks from exposure to toxic ambient air pollutants.

Cited by 18 publications

References 67 publications

Air Toxics and Health Risks in California: The Public Health Implications of Outdoor Concentrations

Air Toxics and Health Risks in California: The Public Health Implications of Outdoor Concentrations

Markers of individual susceptibility and DNA repair rate in workers exposed to xenobiotics in a tire plant

Human Biomonitoring and the Inspire Directive: Spatial Data as Link for Environment and Health Research

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