Abstract
OBJECTIVE—An epidemiological investigation to assess the validity of residential proximity to industry as a measure of community exposure. METHODS—19 Housing estates in Teesside (population 1991: 77 330) in north east England were grouped into zones: A=near; B=intermediate; C=further from industry. With residential proximity of socioeconomically matched populations as a starting point a historical land use survey, historical air quality reports, air quality monitoring, dispersion modelling data, and questionnaire data, were examined. RESULTS—The populations in zones A, B, and C were similar for socioeconomic indicators and smoking history. Areas currently closest to industry had also been closest for most of the 20th century. Historical reports highlighted the influence of industrial emissions to local air quality, but it was difficult to follow spatial pollution patterns over time. Whereas contemporary NOx and benzene concentrations showed no geographical variation, dispersion modelling of emissions (116 industrial stacks, traffic, and domestic sources) showed a gradient associated with industry. The presumed exposure gradient of areas by proximity to industry (A>B>C) was evident for all of zone A and most of zones B and C. CONCLUSIONS—It was feasible to assemble a picture of community exposure by integration of measurements from different sources. Proximity of residence was a reasonable surrogate for complex community exposure. Keywords: exposure assessment; community exposure; industrial pollution
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (175.1 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Bhopal R. S., Moffatt S., Pless-Mulloli T., Phillimore P. R., Foy C., Dunn C. E., Tate J. A. Does living near a constellation of petrochemical, steel, and other industries impair health? Occup Environ Med. 1998 Dec;55(12):812–822. doi: 10.1136/oem.55.12.812. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Diggle P., Elliott P. Disease risk near point sources: statistical issues for analyses using individual or spatially aggregated data. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1995 Dec;49 (Suppl 2):S20–S27. doi: 10.1136/jech.49.suppl_2.s20. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Dolk H., Elliott P., Shaddick G., Walls P., Thakrar B. Cancer incidence near radio and television transmitters in Great Britain. II. All high power transmitters. Am J Epidemiol. 1997 Jan 1;145(1):10–17. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009026. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Elliott P., Martuzzi M., Shaddick G. Spatial statistical methods in environmental epidemiology: a critique. Stat Methods Med Res. 1995 Jun;4(2):137–159. doi: 10.1177/096228029500400204. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Katsouyanni K., Pershagen G. Ambient air pollution exposure and cancer. Cancer Causes Control. 1997 May;8(3):284–291. doi: 10.1023/a:1018492818416. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kleinschmidt I., Hills M., Elliott P. Smoking behaviour can be predicted by neighbourhood deprivation measures. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1995 Dec;49 (Suppl 2):S72–S77. doi: 10.1136/jech.49.suppl_2.s72. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lloyd O. L., Ireland E., Tyrrell H., Williams F. Respiratory cancer in a Scottish industrial community: a retrospective case-control study. J Soc Occup Med. 1986 Spring;36(1):2–8. doi: 10.1093/occmed/36.1.2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Phillimore P. R., Morris D. Discrepant legacies: premature mortality in two industrial towns. Soc Sci Med. 1991;33(2):139–152. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(91)90174-b. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Phillimore P., Beattie A., Townsend P. Widening inequality of health in northern England, 1981-91. BMJ. 1994 Apr 30;308(6937):1125–1128. doi: 10.1136/bmj.308.6937.1125. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pless-Mulloli T., Phillimore P., Moffatt S., Bhopal R., Foy C., Dunn C., Tate J. Lung cancer, proximity to industry, and poverty in northeast England. Environ Health Perspect. 1998 Apr;106(4):189–196. doi: 10.1289/ehp.98106189. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Richter B. S., Stockwell H. G. Descriptive study of deaths from cancer associated with residential proximity to the site of underground nuclear detonations. Arch Environ Health. 1998 Mar-Apr;53(2):109–113. doi: 10.1080/00039896.1998.10545971. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Sainsbury P., Hussey R., Ashton J., Andrews B. Industrial atmospheric pollution, historical land use patterns and mortality. J Public Health Med. 1996 Mar;18(1):87–93. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubmed.a024467. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Seifert B. Validity criteria for exposure assessment methods. Sci Total Environ. 1995 Jun 16;168(2):101–107. doi: 10.1016/0048-9697(95)04613-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Soter N. A., Wasserman S. I., Austen K. F. Cold urticaria: release into the circulation of histamine and eosinophil chemotactic factor of anaphylaxis during cold challenge. N Engl J Med. 1976 Mar 25;294(13):687–690. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197603252941302. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wacholder S. When measurement errors correlate with truth: surprising effects of nondifferential misclassification. Epidemiology. 1995 Mar;6(2):157–161. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199503000-00012. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wilkinson P., Thakrar B., Shaddick G., Stevenson S., Pattenden S., Landon M., Grundy C., Elliott P. Cancer incidence and mortality around the Pan Britannica Industries pesticide factory, Waltham Abbey. Occup Environ Med. 1997 Feb;54(2):101–107. doi: 10.1136/oem.54.2.101. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]