Samet J M, Speizer F E
Department of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque 87131.
Environ Health Perspect. 1993 Dec;101 Suppl 4(Suppl 4):143-7. doi: 10.1289/ehp.93101s4143.
Air in indoor and outdoor environments typically contains many gaseous and particulate pollutants that may affect adversely any individual at sufficiently high concentrations and more sensitive individuals at lower concentrations. The public health relevance of addressing the effects of mixtures is becoming increasingly evident as we improve the concept of total personal exposure to pollution and obtain more data from personal monitoring. The papers within this volume represent the deliberations of a working group assembled with the goal of improving the epidemiologic approach to investigating the health effects of indoor air pollution and other complex mixtures. The group, composed of epidemiologists, human and animal toxicologists, and experts on biomarkers, comprehensively reviewed the methodologic issues involved in investigating complex mixtures. Members noted the deficiencies of current epidemiologic methodology for studying complex mixtures and called for broad-based advances in study design, exposure assessment, outcome assessment, and data analysis and interpretation. Understanding the health effects of complex mixtures will require multidisciplinary research using not only epidemiologic studies incorporating the new methods of exposure assessment but animal and clinical toxicology.
室内和室外环境中的空气通常含有许多气态和颗粒污染物，当浓度足够高时，这些污染物可能会对任何人产生不利影响，而对于更敏感的个体，在较低浓度下也会产生影响。随着我们改进个人总体污染暴露的概念并从个人监测中获得更多数据，解决混合物影响的公共卫生相关性正变得越来越明显。本卷中的论文代表了一个工作组的讨论结果，该工作组的组建目的是改进调查室内空气污染和其他复杂混合物对健康影响的流行病学方法。该小组由流行病学家、人类和动物毒理学家以及生物标志物专家组成，全面审查了调查复杂混合物所涉及的方法学问题。成员们指出了当前研究复杂混合物的流行病学方法的不足之处，并呼吁在研究设计、暴露评估、结果评估以及数据分析与解释方面取得广泛进展。了解复杂混合物对健康的影响将需要多学科研究，不仅要使用纳入新暴露评估方法的流行病学研究，还要进行动物和临床毒理学研究。
