The MAPEC_LIFE Study: indoor/outdoor air pollution exposure and lifestyles of the prospective cohort

摘要

Background. The MAPEC-LIFE project (Monitoring Air Pollution Effects on Children for Supporting Public Health Policy) is a multicentre study that seeks to assess the association between concentrations of certain atmospheric pollutants and early biological effects in children aged 6-8. The study protocol envisages: recruitment of 1000 primary schoolchildren in five Italian cities (Brescia, Lecce, Perugia, Pisa and Torino); sampling in two seasons of exfoliated buccal mucosa cells and salivary leukocytes; assessment of genotoxic damage in the sampled cells respectively by micronucleus cytome assay and comet assay; atmospheric monitoring near the schools involved, evaluation of the concentration of genotoxic contaminants and the in vitro toxicity of PM 0.5. In order to evaluate the confounding role of other factors to which the subject may be exposed, the parents of the children participating in the study were asked to fill in an ad hoc questionnaire preliminarily subjected to feasibility and realibility tests. The results of the investigation of the indoor/outdoor exposure and some aspects of the lifestyles of the children enrolled are presented. Methods. The questionnaire was subdivided into different sections: criteria for inclusion in the study, personal information, and information about the parents, children's homes, lifestyles, indoor/outdoor exposure and diet. The questionaire was filled in twice, during each biological sampling (winter 2014-2015 and spring 2015). Results. 1356 valid questionnaires were collected in the first season and 1164 (50.9% males, 94.4% born in Italy) in the second, with a fall of 14.2%. The analysis of the data on specific exposures highlights differences between the various cities and between the two seasons. Conclusions. Information on outdoor and indoor environmental exposure and the lifestyles of participating children can be integrated with the results of environmental and biological monitoring in order to construct a global model of genotoxic risk that can be used to support environmental policies.