Open AccessAssociation between Traffic Air Pollution and Reduced Forced Vital Capacity: A Study Using Personal Monitors for Outdoor Workers
Author(s) -
Ubiratan de Paula Santos,
Maria Lúcia Siqueira Bueno Garcia,
Alfésio Luís Ferreira Braga,
Luiz Alberto Amador Pereira,
Chin An Lin,
Paulo Afonso de André,
Carmen Diva Saldiva de André,
Júlio M. Singer,
Paulo Hilário Nascimento Saldiva
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0163225
Subject(s) - air pollution , environmental health , environmental science , medicine , biology , ecology
Background The effects of outdoor air pollution on lung function in adults are still controversial. Objective Evaluate the effects of exposure to different levels of traffic-generated PM 2.5 on workers’ lung functions in São Paulo, Brazil. Methods To cover a wide range of exposures, 101 non-smoking workers from three occupations (taxi drivers, traffic controllers, and forest rangers) were selected for the study. After clinical evaluation, the participants were scheduled to attend four consecutive weekly visits in which they received a 24-hour personal PM 2.5 sampler and had lung function tests measured on the following day. The association between the spirometric variables and the averaged PM 2.5 levels was assessed using robust regression models adjusted for age, waist circumference, time at the job, daily work hours, diabetes or hypertension and former smoking habits. Results Relative to workers in the lowest exposed group (all measures < 25 μg/m 3 ), those with the highest level of exposure (all measures > 39.6 μg/m 3 ) showed a reduction of predicted FVC (-12.2%; CI 95%: [-20.0% to -4.4%]), a marginal reduction of predicted FEV 1 (-9.1%; CI 95%: [-19.1% to 0.9%]) and an increase of predicted FEF 25-75% /FVC (14.9%; CI 95%: [2.9% to 26.8%]) without changes of FEV 1 /FVC. Conclusions Exposure to vehicular traffic air pollution is associated with a small but significant reduction of FVC without a reduction of FEV 1 /FVC.