ORCID Profile
0000-0003-0571-4689
Current Organisation
KU Leuven
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.ENVINT.2016.06.019
Abstract: We investigated the associations between daily sales of respiratory medication and air pollutants in the Brussels-Capital Region between 2005 and 2011. We used over-dispersed Poisson Generalized Linear Models to regress daily in idual reimbursement data of prescribed asthma and COPD medication from the social security database against each subject's residential exposure to outdoor particulate matter (PM10) or NO2 estimated, by interpolation from monitoring stations. We calculated cumulative risk ratios (RR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) for interquartile ranges (IQR) of exposure for different windows of past exposure for the entire population and for seven age groups. Median daily concentrations of PM10 and NO2 were 25μg/m(3) (IQR=17.1) and 38μg/m(3) (IQR=20.5), respectively. PM10 was associated with daily medication sales among in iduals aged 13 to 64y. For NO2, significant associations were observed among all age groups except >84y. The highest RR were observed for NO2, among adolescents, including three weeks lags (RR=1.187 95%CI: 1.097-1.285). The associations found between temporal changes in exposure to air pollutants and daily sales of respiratory medication in Brussels indicate that urban air pollution contributes to asthma and COPD morbidity in the general population.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2009
Publisher: European Respiratory Society
Date: 09-2016
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.ENVRES.2016.03.031
Abstract: Following a train derailment, several tons of acrylonitrile (ACN) exploded, inflamed and part of the ACN ended up in the sewage system of the village of Wetteren. More than 2000 residents living in the close vicinity of the accident and along the sewage system were evacuated. A human biomonitoring study of the adduct N-2-cyanoethylvaline (CEV) was carried out days 14-21 after the accident. (1) To describe the short-term health effects that were reported by the evacuated residents following the train accident, and (2) to explore the association between the CEV concentrations, extrapolated at the time of the accident, and the self-reported short-term health effects. Short-term health effects were reported in a questionnaire (n=191). An omnibus test of independence was used to investigate the association between the CEV concentrations and the symptoms. Dose-response relationships were quantified by Generalized Additive Models (GAMs). The most frequently reported symptoms were local symptoms of irritation. In non-smokers, dose-dependency was observed between the CEV levels and the self-reporting of irritation (p=0.007) and nausea (p=0.007). Almost all non-smokers with CEV concentrations above 100pmol/g globin reported irritation symptoms. Both absence and presence of symptoms was reported by non-smokers with CEV concentrations below the reference value and up to 10 times the reference value. Residents who visited the emergency services reported more symptoms. This trend was seen for the whole range of CEV concentrations, and thus independently of the dose. The present study is one of the first to relate exposure levels to a chemical released during a chemical incident to short-term (self-reported) health effects. A dose-response relation was observed between the CEV concentrations and the reporting of short-term health effects in the non-smokers. Overall, the value of self-reported symptoms to assess exposure showed to be limited. The results of this study confirm that a critical view should be taken when considering self-reported health complaints and that ideally biomarkers are monitored to allow an objective assessment of exposure.
No related grants have been discovered for Benoit Nemery.