Institute of Environmental Medicine, Seoul National University Medical Research Centre, Republic of Korea.
Sci Total Environ. 2010 Jan 15;408(4):754-9. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.11.015. Epub 2009 Nov 24.
Health effects of the Asian Dust Storm (ADS) have not been evaluated adequately, even though it may affect health of people in East Asia. This study was conducted to evaluate whether the ADS affects particulate air pollution and pulmonary function of children. We studied 110 school children in Seoul, Korea with daily measurement of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) from May 13 to June 15, 2007. PM(2.5), PM(10) and metals bound to the particles were also determined daily during the study period in Ala Shan and Beijing (China) as well as in Seoul (Korea). Three-day back trajectories showed that air parcels arrived at Seoul mostly from the desert areas in China and Mongolia through eastern China during ADS event affecting levels of particulate pollutants in the areas. Analysis of metals bound to the particulates showed that natural metal levels were much higher than the anthropogenic metal levels. We found that ambient concentrations of PM(2.5) and PM(10) were not significantly associated with PEFR in school children except asthmatics during the study period (P>0.05). However, most of the metal concentrations bound to the particulates were significantly associated with decrease of the children's PEFR (P<0.05). The effect of anthropogenic metals was not different from natural components of metals for reduction of PEFR. This result indicates that exposure to the metals bound to particles during the ADS period reduces children's pulmonary function, but there was no difference of potency for reduction of the pulmonary function between natural and anthropogenic metal components.
亚洲沙尘暴（ADS）对健康的影响尚未得到充分评估，尽管它可能会影响东亚人民的健康。本研究旨在评估 ADS 是否会影响儿童的空气颗粒物污染和肺功能。我们研究了韩国首尔的 110 名学童，从 2007 年 5 月 13 日至 6 月 15 日每天测量呼气峰流速（PEFR）。在研究期间，还在阿勒山和北京（中国）以及首尔（韩国）每天测定 PM（2.5）、PM（10）和颗粒物结合的金属。三天的后轨迹显示，空气团在 ADS 事件期间主要从中国和蒙古的沙漠地区经中国东部到达首尔，影响了这些地区的颗粒物污染物水平。对颗粒物结合的金属分析表明，天然金属水平远高于人为金属水平。我们发现，除哮喘患儿外，研究期间环境中 PM（2.5）和 PM（10）浓度与学童的 PEFR 无显著相关性（P>0.05）。然而，大多数颗粒物结合的金属浓度与儿童 PEFR 的降低显著相关（P<0.05）。人为金属对 PEFR 的降低作用与金属的天然成分没有区别。这一结果表明，在 ADS 期间暴露于颗粒物结合的金属会降低儿童的肺功能，但天然和人为金属成分对肺功能降低的效力没有差异。
