Long-term exposure to ozone and children's respiratory health: Results from the RESPOZE study.

BACKGROUND: Although there is evidence on the effects of short-term ozone (O3) exposures on children's respiratory health, few studies have reported results on the effects of long-term exposures. We report the effects of long-term exposure to O3 on respiratory health outcomes in 10-11-year old children. METHODS: We conducted a panel study in a sample of the general population of school children in two cities with high average O3 concentrations, Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece. All 186 participating students were followed up intensively for 5 weeks spreading across a school year. Data was collected through questionnaires, weekly personal O3 measurements, spirometry, FeNO and time-activity diaries. Long-term O3 exposure was assessed using fixed site measurements and modeling, calibrated for personal exposures. The associations between measured lung function parameters and lung function growth over the study period, as well as FeNO and the occurrence of symptoms with long-term O3 exposure were assessed through the application of multiple mixed effects 2-level regression models, adjusting for confounders and for short-term exposures. RESULTS: A 10 µg/m3 increase in calibrated long-term O3exposure, using measurements from fixed site monitors was associated with lower FVC and FEV1 by 17 mL (95% Confidence Interval: 5-28) and 13 mL (3-21) respectively and small decreases in lung growth: 0.008% (0.002-0.014%) for FVC and 0.006% (0.000-0.012%) in FEV1 over the study period. No association was observed with PEF, FeNO or the occurrence of symptoms. A similar pattern was observed when the exposure estimates from the dispersion models were employed. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides evidence that long-term O3 exposure is associated with reduced lung volumes and growth.

Improved sectoral allocation of NMVOC emissions from solvent use in Greece.

Solvent use and road transport are the two most significant sources of NMVOC emissions in urban environments. The allocation of emissions to solvent-related activities is of major importance since it is a major step towards providing spatially and temporally resolved accurate emission data in air quality models and assisting the development of properly orientated emission reduction measures. In this paper an activity-specific NMVOC emission inventory from solvent use in Greece is presented. The diversity, the volume and the complexity of the relevant activity data and, in some cases, the use of the same solvent and/or product in a variety of uses are the main difficulties in solvent emission inventorying. To overcome them, an extensive market research/survey is performed, combined with a literature review and expert opinion, to determine solvent utilization factors (expressed via usage factors as solvents, or per activity and/or per process). With the aid of these usage factors, appropriate emission factors, national statistical activity data and the calculating formulas developed, emissions are estimated and attributed to each solvent-related activity. Main results indicate that the use of solvents is the second source of NMVOC emissions in Greece (72+/-4 kt in 2003), the road transport sector being the first one (171 kt). Paint applications are the most important source of solvent NMVOC emissions, accounting for 44.5+/-2.5% of the total solvent NMVOC followed by the domestic use of solvents (excluding paint), which accounts for 39+/-2% of total solvent NMVOC.

Spatial and temporal characteristics of air pollutant emissions in Thessaloniki, Greece: investigation of emission abatement measures.

The paper presents new detailed emissions inventory for the Greater Area of Thessalonilki, northern Greece, which incorporates a large amount of data on the polluting anthropogenic and biogenic activities in the region, including the location of all individual point, line and area sources along with their daily, weekly and monthly profiles and activity rates. The emission estimate followed both the bottom-up and the top-down approaches. Apart from the base year calculations, scenario estimates are provided for the base year, intended to show the maximum possible benefit of abatement measures and for the future, in order to estimate the evolution of air pollutant emissions in relation to structural changes and land planning. Air pollutant emissions were calculated for an area of 5,120 km2 at two different spatial resolutions (1x1 km2 and 2x2 km2) in order to support air quality simulations in the region. The resulting spatially allocated emission database, which also incorporates elevation and land use data, constitutes a clear improvement in comparison to existing emissions inventories of the area, and the procedure followed can be considered as a 'best practice' guide for developers of urban emissions inventories.