Health effects of PM2.5 sources on children's allergic and respiratory symptoms in Fukuoka, Japan
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Previous epidemiological studies have indicated that short term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is associated with asthma (Mann et al., 2010; Meng et al., 2010; Schachter et al., 2016). Some studies also investigated the association of air pollutants with respiratory and allergic symptoms (Chen et al., 2018). Daily changes in respiratory symptoms may reflect early physiological changes, such as airway inflammation, induced by inhaled substances and may be an early indicator of subsequent health outcomes. Some of these studies included children to examine the association between PM2.5 and respiratory symptoms because children are susceptible to air pollution. Children tend to have higher exposure to air pollution owing to longer time spent outside and less matured lungs and immune system compared with adults (Heinrich and Slama, 2007). A study found that particles are deposited more in the upper airways in children (Deng et al., 2018), which may contribute to susceptibility to air pollution for children.
PM2.5 originates from various sources, including both anthropogenic and natural sources. There has been concern whether specific sources may contribute to adverse health effects of PM2.5. Many studies have examined the health effects of PM2.5 sources. Their relationship with mortality (Ito et al., 2006), cardiovascular and respiratory emergency department visits (Sarnat et al., 2008; Ostro et al., 2016; Krall et al., 2017; Yamazaki et al., 2019), and respiratory hospitalization (Bell et al., 2014) has been studied. Some studies examined the association between PM2.5 sources and asthma and allergic symptoms in children (Gent et al., 2009; Prieto-Parra et al., 2017; Rohr et al., 2014). However, these studies focused on asthmatic children, and few studies targeted the general pediatric population, including relatively healthy children.
Fukuoka is an urban city with >1.5 million inhabitants. It is located in the northern part of the Kyusyu region of Japan and is close to the Asian continent. Fukuoka city is influenced both by local emission (Yoshino et al., 2016) and transboundary air pollution (Kaneyasu et al., 2014). This area has also frequently experienced the Asian dust phenomenon, in which dust particles from the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in western China and Mongolia are lifted by wind and are transported to the downstream areas, especially in spring (Huang et al., 2008). In response to the growing concern regarding health effects of air pollution from various sources and Asian dust particles, we examined the association of daily exposure to PM2.5 with daily respiratory and allergic symptoms in the general pediatric population of Fukuoka. We also extended the analysis using several sources identified through positive matrix factorization (PMF).
Section snippets
Study participants and health outcomes
This study was conducted by the city of Fukuoka, the National Institute for Environmental Studies, and Kyoto University during May and June of 2014 and 2015. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the National Institute for Environmental Studies (2013-7R). The study population consisted of schoolchildren aged 9–12 residing in the city. We selected 4 public elementary schools, whose distance from the sampling point ranged from 3 to 15 km. We distributed the study information
Participant Statistics
Among 3013 schoolchildren invited, 2553 (84.7%) agreed and participated in the study. Demographic characteristics of study participants are shown in Table 1. Approximately 15%, 26%, and 13% of schoolchildren reported a medical history of asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis, respectively. Almost 50% of children's families accessed information regarding PM2.5. We included 2317 children who kept the diary >23 days (80% of the study period) for further analyses.
Symptoms
The mean daily
Discussion
In this study, PM2.5 was associated with the presence of nasal, ocular and skin symptoms, but not lower respiratory symptoms for schoolchildren. We divided PM2.5 measured in Fukuoka into 6 sources: “Secondary sulfate and coal combustion”, “Secondary nitrate”, “Heavy oil combustion”, “Sea salt”, “Soil” and “Traffic emission We used PMF analysis and examined the association of each PM source with symptoms. We found that a few source factors, specifically, “Heavy oil combustion”, “Sea salt” and
Conclusion
In conclusion, PM2.5 was associated with nasal, ocular and skin symptoms for relatively healthy schoolchildren in Fukuoka. PM2.5 sources were divided into 6 sources; “Secondary sulfate and coal combustion”, “Secondary nitrate”, “Heavy oil combustion”, “Sea salt”, “Soil” and “Traffic emission”. We found that PM2.5 related to “Heavy oil combustion”, “Sea salt”, and “Soil” had a significant positive association with respiratory and allergic symptoms for the children. “Soil” sources might be
Declaration of competing interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank all the children, their families and teachers who participated in this study, and all the office members of Fukuoka city who supported this project.
Funding
This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan [25241015] and the Environmental Research and Technology Development Fund of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency, Japan [Number 5-1751, and S12].
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