The associations between traffic-related air pollution and noise with blood pressure in children

Abstract

Although traffic emits both air pollution and noise, studies jointly examining the effects of both of theseexposures on blood pressure (BP) in children are scarce. We investigated associations between land-useregression modeled long-term traffic-related air pollution and BP in 2368 children aged 10 years fromGermany (1454 from Munich and 914 from Wesel). We also studied this association with adjustmentof long-term noise exposure (defined as day-evening-night noise indicator "LdenŁ and night noise indi-cator "LnightŁ) in a subgroup of 605 children from Munich inner city. In the overall analysis including2368 children, NO2, PM2.5mass (particles with aerodynamic diameters below 2.5 m), PM10mass (par-ticles with aerodynamic diameters below 10 m) and PM2.5absorbance were not associated with BP.When restricting the analysis to the subgroup of children with noise information (N = 605), a significantassociation between NO2and diastolic BP was observed (-0.88 (95% confidence interval: -1.67, -0.08)).However, upon adjusting the models for noise exposure, only noise remained independently and signif-icantly positively associated with diastolic BP. Diastolic BP increased by 0.50 (-0.03, 1.02), 0.59 (0.05,1.13), 0.55 (0.03, 1.07), and 0.58 (0.05, 1.11) mmHg for every five decibel increase in Lden and by 0.59(-0.05, 1.22), 0.69 (0.04, 1.33), 0.64 (0.02, 1.27), and 0.68 (0.05, 1.32) mmHg for every five decibel increasein Lnight, in different models of NO2, PM2.5mass, PM10mass and PM2.5absorbance as the main exposure,respectively. In conclusion, air pollution was not consistently associated with BP with adjustment fornoise, noise was independently and positively associated with BP in children.© 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved