Spatial variation in nitrogen dioxide concentrations and cardiopulmonary hospital admissions.

Background: Air pollution episodes are associated with increased cardiopulmonary hospital admissions. Cohort studies showed associations of spatial variation in traffic-related air pollution with respiratory and cardiovascular mortality. Much less is known in particular about associations with cardiovascular morbidity.

Air pollution in perspective: Health risks of air pollution expressed in equivalent numbers of passively smoked cigarettes.

Background: Although the health effects of long term exposure to air pollution are well established, it is difficult to effectively communicate the health risks of this (largely invisible) risk factor to the public and policy makers. The purpose of this study is to develop a method that expresses the health effects of air pollution in an equivalent number of daily passively smoked cigarettes.

Methods: Defined changes in PM2.

Respiratory effects of a reduction in outdoor air pollution concentrations.

Background: Air pollution has been associated with respiratory health effects. There is little direct evidence that reductions in air pollution related to abatement policies lead to actual improvement in respiratory health. We assessed whether a reduction in (traffic policy-related) air pollution concentrations was associated with changes in respiratory health.

Impact of low emission zones and local traffic policies on ambient air pollution concentrations.

Background: Evaluations of the effectiveness of air pollution policy interventions are scarce. This study investigated air pollution at street level before and after implementation of local traffic policies including low emission zones (LEZ) directed at heavy duty vehicles (trucks) in five Dutch cities.

Methods: Measurements of PM(10), PM(2.

High beverage sugar as well as high animal protein intake at infancy may increase overweight risk at 8 years: a prospective longitudinal pilot study.

Background: Combined effects of early exposure to beverage sugar and animal protein and later life overweight risk have not been studied.

Methods: A prospective longitudinal study was initiated in 2001 with 226 infants between 4 and 13 months of age. Dietary intake was assessed with a 2 day food record.

A comparison of different approaches to estimate small-scale spatial variation in outdoor NO₂ concentrations.

Background: In epidemiological studies, small-scale spatial variation in air quality is estimated using land-use regression (LUR) and dispersion models. An important issue of exposure modeling is the predictive performance of the model at unmeasured locations.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the performance of two LUR models (large area and city specific) and a dispersion model in estimating small-scale variations in nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations.

Land use regression model for ultrafine particles in Amsterdam.

There are currently no epidemiological studies on health effects of long-term exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP), largely because data on spatial exposure contrasts for UFP is lacking. The objective of this study was to develop a land use regression (LUR) model for UFP in the city of Amsterdam. Total particle number concentrations (PNC), PM10, PM2.