Green space, air pollution, traffic noise and cardiometabolic health in adolescents: The PIAMA birth cohort. Bloemsma Lizan D,Gehring Ulrike,Klompmaker Jochem O,Hoek Gerard,Janssen Nicole A H,Lebret Erik,Brunekreef Bert,Wijga Alet H Environment international BACKGROUND:Green space has been hypothesized to improve cardiometabolic health of adolescents, whereas air pollution and traffic noise may negatively impact cardiometabolic health. OBJECTIVES:To examine the associations of green space, air pollution and traffic noise with cardiometabolic health in adolescents aged 12 and 16 years. METHODS:Waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were measured in subsets of participants of the Dutch PIAMA birth cohort, who participated in medical examinations at ages 12 (n = 1505) and/or 16 years (n = 797). We calculated a combined cardiometabolic risk score for each participant, with a higher score indicating a higher cardiometabolic risk. We estimated exposure to green space (i.e. the average Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and percentages of green space in circular buffers of 300 m and 3000 m), air pollution (by land-use regression models) and traffic noise (using the Standard Model Instrumentation for Noise Assessments (STAMINA) model) at the adolescents' home addresses at the time of the medical examinations. We assessed associations of these exposures with cardiometabolic health outcomes at ages 12 and 16 by multiple linear regression, adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS:We did not observe consistent patterns of associations of green space, air pollution and traffic noise with the cardiometabolic risk score, blood pressure, total cholesterol levels, the total/HDL cholesterol ratio and HbA1c. We found inverse associations of air pollution with waist circumference at both age 12 and 16. These associations weakened after adjustment for region, except for particulate matter with a diameter of <2.5 μm (PM) at age 12. The association of PM with waist circumference at age 12 remained after adjustment for green space and road traffic noise (adjusted difference - 1.42 cm [95% CI -2.50, -0.35 cm] per 1.16 μg/m increase in PM). CONCLUSION:This study does not provide evidence for beneficial effects of green space or adverse effects of air pollution and traffic noise on cardiometabolic health in adolescents. 10.1016/j.envint.2019.104991

Systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein) in type 2 diabetic patients is associated with ambient air pollution in Pune City, India. Diabetes care OBJECTIVE:To study the association between ambient air pollutants and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration in 1,392 type 2 diabetic patients in Pune, India. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS:A cross-sectional study was conducted that linked daily time series of ambient air pollution data (obtained from central monitoring sites) and plasma CRP concentration in type 2 diabetic patients from the Wellcome Trust Genetic (WellGen) Study, recruited between March 2005 and May 2007. Air pollution effects on CRP concentration were investigated with delays (lags) of 0-7 days and multiday averaging spans of 7, 14, and 30 days before blood collection adjusted for age, sex, BMI, hemoglobin, fasting plasma glucose, treatment with agents with anti-inflammatory action, season, air temperature, and relative humidity. RESULTS:Median CRP concentration was 3.49 mg/L. For 1 SD increase in SO(2) and oxides of nitrogen (NO(x)) concentrations in ambient air, a day before blood collection (lag(1)), we observed a significant increase in CRP (9.34 and 7.77%, respectively). The effect was higher with lag(2) (12.42% for SO(2) and 11.60% for NO(x)) and wore off progressively thereafter. We also found a significant association with multiday averaging times of up to 30 and 7 days for SO(2) and NO(x), respectively. No significant associations were found between particulate matter with an aerodynamic profile ≤10 µm (PM(10)) and CRP concentration except in summer. The association was significantly higher among patients with a shorter duration of diabetes, and in those not on statin and thiazolidinedione treatment. CONCLUSIONS:We demonstrate, for the first time, a possible contribution of ambient air pollution to systemic inflammation in Indian type 2 diabetic patients. This may have implications for vascular complications of diabetes. 10.2337/dc12-0388