Impact of Air Pollution by Fine Particles on Children's Pulmonary Function

摘要

Introduction: Air pollution continues to pose a significant threat to health worldwide in developed and developing countries. In developing countries the roadside dust is one of the most important contributors towards overall atmospheric pollution. This problem becomes even more significant when we consider it in relation to the poorly maintained roads loaded with ever increasing motor vehicle traffic. Material and methods: A cross sectional survey was carried out by measuring evels of air pollution by fine particles, as well as pulmonary function of 180 children living and attending schools in urban area and in 80 children of suburban area. The purpose of this survey was to study impact of air pollution in pulmonary function of children. To collect data on age, gender, current respiratory symptoms, allergy diagnosed by the physician, parent education, smoking habit of parents, presence of animals, synthetic carpets and moulds in their houses is used a standardized questionnaire. The selection of schools, and children was done by randomized method. Results: Obtained data have shown that the concentration of PM10 oscillated 10.24-97.00 mcg/m3 and of PM2.5 2.82-71.94 mcg/m3. The data resulted from measurements of pulmonary function have shown significant differences between two groups of children, regarding pulmonary function FVC (P=0.0001), FEV1 (P=0.0003), and PEF (P＜0.0001), whereas OR regarding main symptoms were: cough 1.58 (CI1.09-3.35) and phlegm 1.12 (CI 0.95-1.89). Conclusions: The results of this survey have shown significant differences in values of pulmonary function of the two groups of children. The average concentration of PM10 and PM2.5 in air exceeded recommended TLVs.