Ole Hertel
Aarhus University, Denmark
Title: Assessment of human Air Pollution Exposure and Associated Health Effects – Experience from Danish Studies
Biography
Biography: Ole Hertel
Abstract
For the past more than 25 years, a series of Danish studies have investigated the relationship between short-term as well as long-term air pollution exposure and various health endpoints in the population. The assessment of short-term exposure has generally been based on measurements from routine air pollution monitoring stations, whereas long-term exposure assessment has been carried out using exposure modelling. Measurements are performed by accredited laboratory and in compliance with requirements in the EU Air Quality Directive, and the exposure modelling system is based on state-of-the-art carefully validated transport-chemistry models developed at and applied by Aarhus University (Hertel et al., 2013). In a number of cases, Danish studies have shown stronger relationships compared with findings in studies in other countries despite for relatively moderate pollutant levels. The reasons for this is likely the access to precise health records on individual level, but also high quality exposure assessments.
Danish studies have investigated the relationships between air pollution events and short-term health effects like: overall cardiovascular death and hospital admission, myocardial arrest, mild ischemic stroke, respiratory hospital admission, asthma hospital admission, and wheezing among susceptible. Similarly studies have investigated the relationships between long-term exposure air pollution and health effects like: Cardiovascular hospital admission & death, Stroke hospital admission & death, Respiratory hospital admission, Asthma incidence and hospital admission, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Lung cancer, Incidence of diabetes, mental illness, and negative birth outcomes. Recent studies include: (Cramer et al., 2019; Holst et al., 2018; Raaschou-Nielsen et al., 2018; Andersen et al., 2016; Jørgensen et al., 2016; Hansen et al., 2016), but also other studies will be discussed in the presentation.
In the presentation, the design of and the results from the Danish studies will be presented and discussed. Focus will be on strengths and weaknesses in current exposure assessment. Perspectives and future possibilities will be outlined, and it will be discussed how this may affect air pollution and health assessment studies in the future. The perspectives will link up to the ongoing studies within the Novo Nordic Foundation funded Big Data centre BERTHA.