Lee J T, Shy C M
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA.
J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol. 1999 Jul-Aug;9(4):293-9. doi: 10.1038/sj.jea.7500029.
This Six Communities Study conducted at six communities in southwestern North Carolina investigates the respiratory health status of residents whose households are located near an incinerator. This diary study makes it possible to estimate the daily variation of pulmonary function measured as peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) related to 24-h mean PM10 levels, which were observed at each monitoring station placed in the six study communities, as a surrogate exposure measure of outdoor air pollution. Observations of PEFR among participants in each community were analyzed to determine how they varied according to the degree of exposure to ambient pollutants as well as to other cofactors including, sex, age, respiratory hypersensitivity, hours spent outdoors within the area of the selected community, and surrogate measures for indoor air pollution exposure (vacuum use and experience of air irritants at work). The findings revealed that respiratory hypersensitivity status is a predictor of declining PEFR. PM10 concentrations measured in each study area did not seem to be related to the variations of respiratory health as measured by PEFR. This study did not show any difference in respiratory health between subjects of an incinerator community and those of its comparison community. Even though this community-based study with free-living subjects shows negative findings on the relationship between respiratory health and PM10, it is worth noting that these findings must be interpreted cautiously because exposure estimation based on monitoring of ambient air likely results in misclassification of true exposure levels.
这项在北卡罗来纳州西南部六个社区开展的六社区研究，调查了家庭位于垃圾焚烧炉附近的居民的呼吸健康状况。这项日记式研究能够估计以呼气峰值流速（PEFR）衡量的肺功能的每日变化，PEFR与在六个研究社区设置的每个监测站观测到的24小时平均PM10水平相关，将其作为室外空气污染的替代暴露指标。分析了每个社区参与者的PEFR观测值，以确定其如何根据对环境污染物的暴露程度以及其他协变量而变化，这些协变量包括性别、年龄、呼吸道过敏、在所选社区区域内户外活动的时间，以及室内空气污染暴露的替代指标（使用吸尘器情况和工作中接触空气刺激物的经历）。研究结果显示，呼吸道过敏状况是PEFR下降的一个预测因素。在每个研究区域测量的PM10浓度似乎与通过PEFR衡量的呼吸健康变化无关。这项研究未显示垃圾焚烧炉社区的受试者与其对照社区的受试者在呼吸健康方面存在任何差异。尽管这项以自由生活受试者为对象的社区研究在呼吸健康与PM10之间的关系上得出了阴性结果，但值得注意的是，这些结果必须谨慎解读，因为基于环境空气监测的暴露估计可能会导致对真实暴露水平的错误分类。
