Reviews and feature articleRespiratory health effects of air pollution: Update on biomass smoke and traffic pollution
Section snippets
Exposures to BMFs and traffic pollutants
Exposures to BMF smoke and TRAP are widespread. Domestic fires burning biomass (wood, charcoal, dung, crop residues, and other raw plant materials) for cooking, heating, or both remain the most pervasive and important source of exposure to air pollution for much of humanity. About 2.4 billion persons live in households in which BMFs are the primary fuel for cooking, heating, or both,9, 10 with more than 90% of subjects in rural areas of LDCs using BMFs.9 Exposures are often exacerbated by use
Mechanistic insight
As discussed above, oxidative stress is a commonly cited mechanism for the relationship between air pollutants, many of them with oxidant constituents, and asthma worsening or onset. Both particles and gases can produce oxidative stress and can act in concert. Polymorphisms of the genes encoding glutathione-S-transferase M1, glutathione-S-transferase P1, and TNF-α are all reported to have associations/interactions with asthma and air pollution, but data are not consistent enough to allow firm
Beijing Olympics intervention studies
Natural (or politically organized) changes in the environment are viewed by researchers as great opportunities to study the effects on human health of greater than usual degrees of independent variable (pollution) change. This has been applied to the effects of sudden or dramatic changes in air pollution.82, 83 When these changes are anticipated, detailed clinical studies can be designed.84 One such example was the Beijing Olympics of 2008 (Fig 2). One study that came out of this event examined
Clinical guidance
Reducing the effects of BMF smoke and TRAP on respiratory health will require both public policy and the actions of individual patients. Consensus standards recognize the importance of air pollutants in the prevention and management of asthma and COPD and have recommended that clinicians counsel patients to become aware of and avoid exposures to air pollution (see the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Expert Panel 3 reports).
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Series editors: Donald Y. M. Leung, MD, PhD, and Dennis K. Ledford, MD
Supported in part by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant P30 ES005022 and US Environmental Protection Agency STAR Grant RD 83457901.