Health Assessment of Environmental Pollutants: Proliferative and Degenerative Diseases

Abstract

In order to achieve a balanced approach to risk assessment between carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health effects one must examine the risk of disease or death in the general population exposed to a particular air pollutant that can be related quantitatively to intensity and duration of exposures (National Academy of Sciences, 1983). Such risk assessment should be based upon careful evaluation of scientific findings of dose-response relationships in the chronically exposed population. Quantitative assessment of environmentally produced disease in man has proven to be complex and demanding. A variety of factors play important roles in this task. As an example, there are induction-latency periods for chronic diseases, including cancer, which may range from five to twenty-five years. The diseases themselves, whether proliferative or degenerative, may follow several stages of progression. There is only sparse epidemiological data on serious health effects that may be due to environmental as compared to occupational exposures. Exposures to chemical or radiological air contaminants do not occur singly but to a multiplicity of agents, and disease processes are frequently markedly affected by the interaction of a variety of factors, particularly that of cigarette smoking. There is growing recognition of potentially sensitive subpopulations, including the elderly and the very young, but adequate techniques for assessing the magnitude of increased risks to these groups have not yet been developed.

The health assessments of environmental air contaminants are at present frequently based upon probability of cancer, if this has been identified as a potential result of prolonged exposure to the particular inhalation hazard. However, for many airborne hazards chronic inhalation exposure may result in morbidity or mortality risks due to chronic degenerative diseases such as emphysema, fibrosis, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that may be nearly as great or greater than those of more widely recognized neoplastic or proliferative disease. The relative hazards of environmentally released radioactive and chemical air contaminants, i.e., radon daughters and diesel engine exhaust, will be discussed as examples.

Keywords

degenerative disease dose-response relationships proliferative disease quantitative assessment risk assessment.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Archer, V.E. , Wagoner, J.K. and Lundin, JR , F.E. (1973). Uranium mining and cigarette smoking effects on man. AMA Journal of Occupational Medicine 14:1-17.

Dibner, B. (1958). "Agricola on Metals," De Re Metallica, by Georgium Agricola, Basel, 1597, translated by Herbert C. Hoover. Norwalk, CT: Burndy Library, Inc.

Harley, N.H. , Cross, F.T. and Stuart, B.O. (1984). Evaluation of Occupational and Environmental Exposures to Radon and Radon Daughters in the United States. NRCP Report No. 78. Washington, D.C.: National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.

Jorgensen, H. and Svensson, A. (1970). Studies in pulmonary function and respiratory tract symptoms of workers in an iron ore mine where diesel trucks are used underground. AMA Journal of Occupational Medicine 123:349-354.

McClellan, R.O. (1986). Health effects of diesel exhaust: A case study in risk assessment. Am. Indust. Hyg. Assoc. J. 47:1-13.

National Academy Of Sciences. (1981). National Research Council. Health Effects of Exposure to Diesel Exhaust . Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

National Academy Of Sciences. (1983). National Research Council. Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Nero, JR , A.V. (1985). Indoor concentrations of radon-222 and its daughters: Sources, range, and environmental influences. Indoor Air and Human Health (R.B. Gammage and S.V. Kaye, eds), pp. 43-67. Chelsea, MI: Lewis Publishers, Inc.

Radford, E.P. and St Clair Renard, K.G. (1984). Lung cancer in Swedish iron miners exposed to low doses of radon daughters. New Eng. J. Med. 310:1485-1494.

10.

Reger, R. and Hancock, J. (1979). On Respiratory Health: Coal Miners Exposed to Diesel Exhaust Emissions. Morgantown, WV: Appalachian Laboratory for Occupational Safety and Health.

11.

Stuart, B.O. (1977). Inhaled radon daughters and uranium ore dust in rodents. Pacific Northwest Laboratory Annual Report, PNL-2500, Part 1. Springfield, VA: National Technical Information Service .

12.

Stuart, B.O. , Palmer, R.F. , Filipy, R.E. , Dagle, G.E. and McDonald, K.E. (1977). Respiratory tract carcinogenesis in large and small experimental animals following daily inhalation of radon daughters and uranium ore dust. Proceedings of the International Radiation Protection Association, IVth International Congress, Paris, pp. 1337-1340.

13.

Surgeon General. (1980). The Health Consequences of Smoking. Cancer. A Report of the Surgeon General. DHHS (PHS) 82-50179. Rockville, MD: U.S. Public Health Service, Office on Smoking and Health.

14.

Waller, R. (1979). Trends in lung cancer in London in relation to exposure to diesel fumes. Proceedings of the EPA International Symposium on the Health Effects of Diesel Engine Emissions. Cincinnati, OH.