Posted
05/18/2007
Study shows even low
levels of pollution can have
adverse impact on asthma sufferers
Breathing
air containing coarse particulate matter causes adverse heart
effects
for asthma sufferers, according to a new joint study by the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency.
The researchers found
that in adults with asthma, a small increase in coarse particulate
matter in outdoor air raised bad cholesterol and increased the count of
inflammation-linked white blood cells, among other changes.
“This research was
all done with study participants just being outside and breathing
outdoor air,” said Dr. Karin Yeatts, research assistant professor of
epidemiology at the UNC School of Public Health, a member of the UNC
Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology, and the
study’s co-principal investigator.
“Our results indicate
that susceptible people really need to pay attention to air pollution
warnings and stay inside when the air pollution is bad. This is
particularly the case for people with asthma.”
The study, published
in the May 2007 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, was a
collaboration by researchers from the UNC School of Public Health, the
School of Medicine’s Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung
Biology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Dr. Erik R. Svendsen,
a research assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and
Biostatistics at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of
Public Health, worked for the EPA’s Human Studies Division at the time
and led the agency’s participation in the study done in 2003-2004.
Svendsen explained
that while the observed particulate levels were not concentrated enough
to cause immediate development of disease, they were in high enough
concentration to contribute to the potential long-term development of
disease.
LOW
PARTICULATE LEVELS HAVE EFFECT
“Basically, we found
that even relatively low levels of exposure to air pollution particles
was associated with significantly reduced markers of circulatory, heart,
and inflammatory health in asthmatic adults,” said Svendsen, who also
serves as state environmental epidemiologist at the S.C. Department of
Health and Environmental Control.
“In South Carolina
our air pollution levels are similar to what we observed in North
Carolina. Therefore, adult asthmatics here in our state may be
experiencing these same types of pre-disease effects that we report in
this paper,” said Svendsen, who joined the USC faculty in January 2005.
The team found that
when adult asthma sufferers were exposed to a one microgram per cubic
meter increase in coarse particulate matter in ambient air their
triglyceride levels increased by nearly five percent. Elevated levels of
triglycerides have been shown to increase one’s risk of coronary heart
disease.
The amount of
eosinophils in study participants’ blood also increased by 0.16 percent
after exposure to the higher levels of coarse particulate matter.
Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell created by the human body to
fight infections, allergies and diseases like asthma among other things.
Finally, the same
increase in coarse particulate matter resulted in a three percent
decrease in a measure of heart rate variability, the variation of the
beat-to-beat intervals of the heart. A healthy heart has wide heart rate
variability, while decreased variability can indicate stress or cardiac
disease.
Surprisingly, there
was no relationship between coarse particulate matter and rescue
medication use, asthma symptoms, lung function or airway inflammatory
markers, Yeatts said. However, 10 of the 12 adult asthmatics in the
study were taking anti-inflammatory controller medication for their
disease, and nine of the 12 had mild disease. It is possible that
anti-inflammatory treatment mitigated the effects in their airways.
SITE OF STUDY NEAR CHAPEL HILL
Study participants
consisted of 12 adults between the ages of 21 and 50 with persistent
asthma. All lived within a 30-mile radius of the study’s particulate
matter monitor, located on the EPA Human Studies Facility at the UNC
campus.
Each study
participant took part in nine clinic visits: five the first week, and
four spaced randomly over the subsequent six to 11 weeks. Data
collection took place between September 2003 and July 2004.
During the study,
outdoor air levels of coarse particulate matter ranged between zero to
14.6 micrograms per cubic meter and did not exceed safety levels set by
the EPA of 150 micrograms per cubic meter.
Other study authors include Lawrence Kupper, Alumni Distinguished
Professor of biostatistics in the UNC School of Public Health; Dr. David
Peden, director of the UNC Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and
Lung Biology; Neil Alexis and Margaret Herbst, UNC Center for
Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology; John Creason, James
Scott, Lucas Neas, Robert Devlin and Ronald Williams of the EPA; and Dr.
Wayne Cascio of Eastern Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine.
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