Parental education and lung function of children in the PATY study.

Studies of the relationships between low socio-economic status and impaired lung function were conducted mainly in Western European countries and North America. East-West differences remain unexplored. Associations between parental education and lung function were explored using data on 24,010 school-children from eight cross-sectional studies conducted in North America, Western and Eastern Europe.

Maternal smoking during pregnancy and childhood obesity: results from the CESAR Study.

Childhood obesity is a worldwide public health concern. Recent studies from high income countries have demonstrated associations between maternal smoking during pregnancy and children's excess body weight. We examine associations between maternal smoking during pregnancy and children's overweight or obesity, in six countries in the less affluent Central/Eastern European region.

Exposure to indoor mould and children's respiratory health in the PATY study.

Background: Living in a damp or mouldy home reportedly damages children's respiratory health, yet mould appears not to be a prominent risk factor in the public's perception. Analyses of data on over 58,000 children from the Pollution and the Young (PATY) study are presented. In this collaboration, researchers from 12 cross-sectional studies pooled their data to assess the effects of air quality on a spectrum of children's respiratory disorders.

Pediatric environmental medicine in Eastern Central Europe.

Pediatric environmental medicine in Central Eastern Europe needs support and development on national, institutional and individual basis. This situation is quantitatively, but not fundamentally different from what is to be found in Central Europe.

Arsenic exposure in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

Inorganic arsenic is a potent human carcinogen and toxicant which people are exposed to mainly via drinking water and food. The objective of the present study was to assess current exposure to arsenic via drinking water in three European countries. For this purpose, 520 individuals from four Hungarian, two Slovakian and two Romanian countries were investigated by measuring inorganic arsenic and methylated arsenic metabolites in urine by high performance liquid chromatography with hydride generation and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.