Bert Brunekreef

..The results of a number of recent European studies are discussed...

..This study explores the validity and generalizability of the previous assumption...

..In this review, we discuss the evidence for adverse effects on health of selected air pollutants...

..It is far more likely that such insight will be used for specific source policy aimed at tackling the sources that contribute the most to the harmfulness of the mixture of air pollution...

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..There is also support for an association between coarse PM and cardiovascular admissions. It is concluded that special consideration should be given to studying and regulating coarse particles separately from fine particles...

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..Cat allergen is a major cause of morbidity among sensitised asthma patients, but little is known about distribution of cat allergen exposure and its determinants in homes...

..The role of air pollution exposure in the development of asthma, allergies, and related symptoms remains unclear, due in part to the limited number of prospective cohort studies with sufficiently long follow-ups addressing this problem...

..Measuring the oxidative potential of airborne particulate matter (PM) may provide a more health-based exposure measure by integrating various biologically relevant properties of PM into a single predictor of biological activity...

..Asthma may be more prevalent in overweight children. However, how early overweight and changes in weight status during childhood affect the asthma risk is unclear...

..Measurements of beta(1-->3)-glucans and fungal extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) are used as markers of mold exposure in field studies. Little is known about their levels and determinants in homes...

..This study describes the formation of a longitudinal data set on asthma medication use and shows first results regarding the prevalence and incidence of medication use...

..This study was conducted to assess the validity of parental reported use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in children...

..71, 95% confidence interval: 0.49-1.03). Breastfed children had a healthier diet at 7 years compared to nonbreastfed children, but this difference could not explain the lower overweight risk at 8 years in breastfed children...

..This challenge creates an opportunity for variability in prescribing. The aim of our study was to investigate how and to what degree patient, family, and physician characteristics influence prescribing of asthma medication in children...

..The aim of this study was to identify determinants of uncontrolled asthma at age 8 in children participating in the PIAMA birth cohort study...

..Maternal exposure to air pollution has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Few studies took into account the spatial and temporal variation of air pollution levels...

..ICS and SABA prescription occurs especially in those who were more likely to develop signs of asthma at age 8...

..Outdoor concentrations of soot and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) outside of schools have been associated with children's respiratory and eye symptoms. We assessed how adjustments for measurement error affect these associations...

..Most studies on the association between lung cancer and air pollution have investigated mortality. There have been few studies of lung cancer incidence...

..Investigation of variation over time is needed for a more complete assessment of the use of these variables in epidemiological analyses of exposure-response relationships...

..Since the composition of these particle fractions also differs, it is of interest to test in future epidemiological studies whether they have different health effects...

..Our aim is to quantify the persistent use of asthma medication, initiated in the first year of life and identify determinants of this persistent use...

..Parental mattresses in homes of allergic mothers had lower cat and mite (but not dog) allergen loadings than mattresses in homes of nonallergic parents. Paternal (as opposed to maternal) allergy seemed to have little influence...

..In our specific application, models based on as few as 24 training sites, however, achieved acceptable hold out validation R(2)s of, on average, 0.60...

..5, soot, and coarse particles. A LUR model for PNC has been developed, with similar validity as previous models for more commonly measured pollutants...

..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...

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..The n-3 and n-6 LCPUFA content in breast milk did not affect weight or BMI gain in the first year of life in breast-fed term infants...

..Maternal diet during pregnancy has the potential to affect airway development and to promote T-helper-2-cell responses during fetal life. This might increase the risk of developing childhood asthma or allergy...

..In this study the agreement between parental reported and measured WC in 8-year-old children was investigated and compared with the agreement between parental reported and measured body mass index (BMI)...

..Several studies have found an effect on mortality of between-city contrasts in long-term exposure to air pollution. The effect of within-city contrasts is still poorly understood...

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..There are, however, very limited data in healthy young people. We examined the association between air pollutants and indicators of vascular damage in a cohort of young adults...

..We carried out a study to investigate the acute respiratory health effects of air pollution related to commuting by bicycle...

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..This finding supports the use of 'living near a busy road' as a measure of exposure in epidemiological studies on the effects of traffic-related air pollution in children...

..As European data on this topic are limited, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of maternal exposure to traffic-related air pollution during different periods of pregnancy on preterm birth and fetal growth...

..We tested the stability of measured and modelled spatial contrasts in outdoor nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) pollution across the Netherlands over 8 years...

..These findings suggest that the lower BMI and lower risk of overweight among breastfed children later in life are already achieved at 1 year of age...

..No studies have simultaneously addressed the long-term and short-term associations between traffic-related air pollution and exhaled NO...

..Associations between traffic pollution on the street of residence and a range of respiratory and allergic outcomes in children have been reported in developed countries, but little is known about such associations in developing countries...

..To assess the relation between ambient, indoor, and personal levels of PM2.5 and its elemental composition for elderly subjects with cardiovascular disease...

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..We therefore conclude that measuring endotoxin levels with the EDC is a valid measure of average airborne endotoxin exposure, while reproducibility over time is at least equivalent to that of reservoir dust analyses...

..Time spent in traffic and spending time outdoors were associated with increased personal exposure of soot and PM2.5, but not NOx...

..Several studies have consistently reported inverse associations between exposure to endotoxin in house dust and atopy. With regard to the association between house dust endotoxin and asthma, the results are inconsistent...

..Further analyses are, however, required to assess the association between exposure to these various microbial agents and allergic and airway diseases in the PARSIFAL population...

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..There is evidence that rapid weight gain during the first year of life is associated with overweight later in life. However, results from studies exploring other critical periods for the development of overweight are inconsistent...

..We examined whether early atopic status (defined by elevated neonatal total IgE (tIgE) or symptoms of atopic dermatitis) modified the association between ETS exposure and RTI...

..The currently recommended technique including inhalation through an NO scrubber effectively deals with variable levels of ambient NO on FENO. In contrast, ambient NO has an effect on measurements of nNO...

..Large-scale replication of previous associations is needed, however. We investigated the association between MBL2 polymorphisms and the frequency of RTI in a large population-based birth cohort of white children...

..This study investigated the in vitro toxicity of ambient PM collected at different sites in the Netherlands in relation to PM composition and oxidative potential...

..The variability of the endotoxin levels between homes and countries can only be partly explained by these factors...

..The within-home variance was larger when samples were taken 8 years apart so that over such long periods, repetition of sampling is recommended...

..Associations between cardiovascular mortality and air pollution and noise together were investigated...

..In populations with high microbial agent levels and low sensitization rates, the curve is shifted down...

..In the scope of prevention, WHISTLER is expected to support the design of solid based prevention measures to reduce respiratory morbidity, mortality and associated costs, and to improve quality of life...

..The results indicated that endotoxin exposure is inversely associated with CAD, suggesting a protective effect of high indoor endotoxin exposure towards the development of the condition...

..This study was intended to identify a gradient of exposure to traffic-related air pollution within different areas in São Paulo to provide information for future epidemiological studies...

..In addition, we studied the determinants and the consequences of differences between reported and measured data...

..Pet ownership in the first two years of life only seemed to offer some protection against sensitization to pollen...

..In addition, following the examples of Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany, the use of geographical information systems is recommended to assess exposure to air pollutants at the address rather than the community level...

..This expert elicitation provides the first quantitative evaluation of estimates of concentration response functions between urban air ultrafine particles and all-cause mortality and hospital admissions...

..We aimed to assess the relation between traffic-related air pollution and mortality in participants of the Netherlands Cohort study on Diet and Cancer (NLCS), an ongoing study...

..Previously we reported heterogeneous associations between particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 microm (PM2.5) and HRV across three study centers...

..10, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.19). In conclusion, PM(2.5) was associated with some cardiac symptoms in three panels of elderly subjects. PM(2.5 )was more strongly related to cardiorespiratory symptoms than ultrafine particles were...

..CONCLUSION: Exhaled nitric oxide is a valid screening tool for AHR to HS in children that present with current wheeze, and it outperforms FEV1 as a predictor of AHR...

..Growing up on a farm and an anthroposophic lifestyle are associated with a lower prevalence of allergic diseases in childhood. This might be related to increased inhalatory exposure to microbial agents...

..In conclusion, the continuous relationship between airway responsiveness and asthma symptoms is in favour of a noncensored measure of airway responsiveness, such as the dose-response slope...

..These factors--the age of the child and maternal or paternal allergy--might partly explain the conflicting results observed in cross-sectional studies...

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..About 90% of the study population lived 10 years or more at its 1986 home address - supporting the use of the estimated concentration at the 1986 address as a relevant exposure variable...

..In adult asthma, bronchial hyper-responsiveness (BHR) to indirect stimuli reflects eosinophilic activation more closely than BHR to stimuli that directly cause smooth muscle contraction...

..To study bronchial responsiveness to adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) in population surveys, repeatability of a rapid dosimetric method with quadrupling doses was evaluated...

..It is not possible to distinguish with certainty which component relates to the effect, since their levels are highly correlated...

..Questionnaire data have frequently been validated against urinary cotinine measurements, but rarely against actual measurements of residential air nicotine...

..The aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between prescribing of asthma medication and doctor-diagnosed asthma in children age 0-17...

..Examples are provided for each of these. The strengths and weaknesses compared to experimental toxicology studies are discussed...

..Because a broad stakeholder involvement in decision making can positively affect the development of widely supported policies, such meetings should be continued for Europe and elsewhere...

..CONCLUSION: This study shows that mite-impermeable mattress encasings have a significant but modest effect on dust and mite allergen levels of mattresses with low initial mite allergen levels, compared to placebo...

..Therefore, allergen avoidance advice given to reduce exposure of allergic asthmatic patients to allergens, does not necessarily have to include switching to a central vacuum cleaner...

..Children from farming families have less allergies than their peers. Consumption of farm milk or unpasteurized milk has been shown to explain (part of) the farming effect or protect against allergies independent of farming status...

..The identified associations require further investigation...

..In addition, we examined whether risk factors for physical symptoms differ between survivors and controls...

..05). CONCLUSION: Early life environmental exposure to day care, or pets may protect against atopic sensitization. Protection against symptoms only occurred if atopic sensitization was present as well...

..Moisture is vitally important for house dust mites and they cannot survive in cold or hot-dry climates...

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..Future studies can achieve this by using questionnaires on the kitchen situation, diaries and real-time measurements of the combustion products under consideration...

..Heart failure deaths, which made up 10% of all cardiovascular deaths, were found to be responsible for about 30% of the cardiovascular deaths related to particulate matter, SO2, CO, and NO2...

..Maternal overweight may affect the pulmonary and immunological development of the fetus in utero because of the increased levels of inflammatory factors associated with being overweight and thereby increase the asthma risk in childhood...

..27 (95% confidence interval = 0.90-20.27) and odds ratio = 6.38 (95% confidence interval = 1.33-30.17, respectively)]...

..Follow-up will determine the long-term effect of the intervention on the development of atopic disease...