ISEE-135 ANALYSIS OF REPEATED CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEYS, OF PRE-SCHOOL RESPIRATORY SYMPTOMS AND TRAFFIC- RELATED AIR POLLUTION Nevil Pierse,* Lesley Rushton,* Claudia E. Kuehni,† Mike Silverman,‡ Catherine Mallon,§ Robert S. Harris,* Jonathan Grigg‡. *MRC Institute for Environment and Health; †Dept. of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern; ‡Dept. of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester; §Leicester City Council, Leicester, UK Introduction: Traffic-related air pollution is associated with respiratory morbidity in school age children. However, there is very little information on the effects of this pollution on younger children, the age at which problems start and whether problems in early childhood persist in later life. Aim: To determine if estimates of PM 10 exposure at the home address are associated with respiratory symptoms in young children and whether this association changes as the children get older. Methods: 4400 children were selected in a stratified random sample of local birth records and their parents were sent questionnaires in 1998 (children aged one to five), 2001 (aged four to eight) and again in 2003 (aged six to ten). The questionnaire asked about respiratory symptoms and relevant confounders. Logistic regression models were used to test the association between the respiratory symptoms and objective measures of exposure. The distance from home address to a major road (DHR) was used as a surrogate measure of PM 10 exposure. Results: Table 1: Association between distance to a major road (per 100m) and chronic respiratory symptoms during the past 12 months Symptoms Children Aged: Odds ratio (95% CI) 1998 (N3410) 1-5 years 2001 (N2580) 4-8 years 2003 (N2153) 6-10 years Cough without cold 1.032 (1.013, 1.052) 1.029 (1.009, 1.049) 1.029 (1.007, 1.050) Cough at Night* 1.018 (1.001, 1.035) 1.018 (1.000, 1.036) 1.017 (0.997, 1.037) Nasal symptoms* 1.018 (1.002, 1.035) 1.027 (1.009, 1.044) 1.037 (1.017, 1.057) Wheeze* 1.005 (0.988, 1.023) 1.023 (0.999, 1.048) 1.008 (0.983, 1.034) * Questionnaire asked for symptoms in the last 12 months From Table 1 we can see that in all three studies cough without a cold has a significant association with DHR. Cough at night has a consistent association with DHR although this has declining significance due to falling power. Nasal symptoms are associated with DHR in all surveys. Wheeze was not significantly associated with DHR in any year. After adjusting for relevant confounders the results were largely unchanged. Discussion: Both cough and nasal symptoms have a significant association with an objective exposure to traffic related air pollution in pre-school children. This association persists through early childhood. This association is less clear for wheeze. ISEE-136 HUMAN EXPOSURE TO BENZENE: THE ROLE OF URBAN AIR POLLUTION AND TOBACCO SMOKE IN A COHORT OF TRAFFIC POLICEMEN Luciano Maestri,* Deborah Traversi,† Sergio Ghittori,* Elisabetta Fea,‡ Roberto Bono,† Tiziana Schiliro `,† Giorgio Gilli†. *Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri; †University of Torino; ‡University of Turin Abstract: Benzene, a well known environmental and occupational carcinogen, is present primarily in air but, active smoke habit represents the most important source of benzene exposure for humans. For nonsmokers, however, benzene exposure ultimately derives from auto exhaust inhaled from the outdoor air. For these reasons, to evaluate the contribution of traffic and tobacco smoke to benzene exposure in an urbanized population and to verify the level of risk for workers strictly bound up with urban traffic, an investigation on personal exposure to benzene in 206 traffic policemen from the city of Turin city (South Europe) was carried out. Personal air samplers were used to measure exposures to benzene in the breathing zone during a work shift. Moreover, in a spot of urine collected at the end of the work shift, S- phenylmercapturic acid (S-PMA) and cotinine were measured respectively as biomarkers of benzene and as biomarker of tobacco smoke. S-PMA was measured by HPLC, cotinine by gas chromatography. At the end of the work shift some information were also collected on: sex, age, minutes spent indoor, outdoor, directing traffic, cigarettes smoked per day. The correlation between cigarettes/day and cotinine was positive and significant: p=0.703, r=0.000). The mean of benzene regarding the whole population (n. 206) was 8.80  8.05 g/m3 while the of S-PMA was 1.48  1.14 g/gr of Creatinine; the Pearson correlation between these two parameter was significant (r=0.000) and positive (p=0.353), confirming the usefulness of this biomarker of benzene. The Pearson correlation was significant (r=0.000) and positive (p=0.445), also for S- PMA versus cotinine but not for S-PMA versus the minutes spent by traffic policemen in indoor environments, outdoor and directing traffic. T-test carried out to compare means of S-PMA for the 52 smokers (2.340  1.57) and the 154 non smokers (1.225  0.82) shown high significance (p=0.000), as well as the comparison of benzene means in smokers (12.677  8.600 g/m3) and in non smokers (7.661  7.531 g/m3): p=0.000. Finally, any relationship was recorded comparing means of benzene and S-PMA for subjects working only indoor versus only outdoor and subjects working only indoor versus traffic directors. The present results highlight for traffic policemen the responsibility of tobacco smoke but not of the place of work. Furthermore, the benzene intake for non smokers does not seem depend on outdoor air or traffic direction, if compared to intake of a “normal” subject working in office. This study was made possible by grants of from Regione Piemonte, ricerca finalizzata anno 2000. ISEE-137 EXPOSURE TO AIR POLLUTION FROM HEAVY TRAFFIC IS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED EOSINOPHILIC ACTIVATION IN DUTCH SCHOOLCHILDREN Nicole A.H. Janssen, Gea de Meer, Bert Brunekreef. IRAS Introduction: Epidemiological studies have shown associations between traffic-related air pollution and adverse effects on (respiratory) health. Some of these studies suggest that these effects are specifically related to exposure to truck (and not car) traffic, suggesting a role of diesel exhaust. Experimental studies have shown that exposure to diesel exhaust particles can result in inflammatory reactions in the airways. Few epidemiological studies, however, have included measurement of inflammatory markers to evaluate these effects in population studies. We therefore evaluated the association between eosinophilic activation and exposure to air pollution from heavy traffic within our previously published study of children attending schools near highways. Methods: In 1997/1998 a study was conducted on the respiratory health of children attending 24 schools within 400 m of a highway. Exposure to traffic-related air pollution was assessed using specific traffic-related characteristics (traffic counts for cars and trucks separately and distance of the homes and schools to the highway) as well as annual average Epidemiology • Volume 15, Number 4, July 2004 Abstracts © 2004 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins S65