Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy.
Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy.
Environ Pollut. 2024 Dec 1;362:124985. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124985. Epub 2024 Sep 18.
Urban outdoor workers (OWs), identified as professionals spending most of their working shifts in an urban environment, are exposed for at least 8 h/day to traffic air pollution, leading to potential health risks. This paper reports the results of a systematic review aimed at identifying the potential health outcomes of exposure to air pollutants for OWs, focusing mainly on police officers, drivers and street vendors. Health outcomes were analysed in terms of early biological effects quantified with specific measured indicators. The main inclusion criterion was the assessment of at least one early biological effect (genetic and epigenetic damage/alterations, inflammation or oxidative stress indicators, or hormonal imbalance) in a population of OWs exposed to urban air pollution. By applying the PRISMA workflow, 82 papers were included in this study. The results showed that the measured pollutant concentrations were significantly below the current occupational limit values, while exceeds the indications of WHO for urban air pollution. This exposure led to significant alterations of biological markers in OWs with respect to non-exposed subjects. In particular, OWs presented an increased frequency of micronuclei and DNA adducts as the main DNA alterations, while police officers (a category of highly exposed OWs) showed hormonal alterations affecting mainly the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Concerning oxidative stress and inflammation, all the analysed matrices (i.e. blood, sputum, urine and lachrymal fluids) showed increased indices for OWs respect to non-exposed groups. Therefore, the evaluation of effect biomarkers to detect early alterations provides crucial information for supporting the occupational risk management of OWs and, at broader level, allows for an insight of the early-stage health outcomes due to urban air pollution.
城市户外工作者（OWs）被定义为大部分工作时间都在城市环境中度过的专业人员，他们每天至少有 8 小时暴露在交通空气污染中，这可能会对他们的健康造成潜在威胁。本文报告了一项系统评价的结果，旨在确定暴露于空气污染物对 OWs 的潜在健康影响，主要关注警察、司机和街头小贩。健康结果是根据用特定测量指标量化的早期生物效应进行分析的。主要纳入标准是评估至少一种早期生物效应（遗传和表观遗传损伤/改变、炎症或氧化应激指标，或激素失衡）在暴露于城市空气污染的 OWs 人群中。通过应用 PRISMA 工作流程，本研究共纳入 82 篇论文。结果表明，测量的污染物浓度明显低于当前的职业限值，但超过了世界卫生组织对城市空气污染的指示值。这种暴露导致 OWs 的生物标志物发生了显著变化，与未暴露的对照组相比，OWs 出现了更多的微核和 DNA 加合物，这是主要的 DNA 改变，而警察（一类高度暴露的 OWs）则表现出影响主要下丘脑-垂体-性腺轴的激素改变。关于氧化应激和炎症，所有分析的基质（即血液、痰液、尿液和泪液）都显示出 OWs 的指数高于未暴露组。因此，评估效应生物标志物以检测早期改变为 OWs 的职业风险管理提供了关键信息，并且在更广泛的层面上，允许深入了解由于城市空气污染导致的早期健康结果。
