The interaction between physical and social-psychological factors in indoor environmental health

Indoor environmental health is now recognized as an important factor in preventing respiratory health problems in the United States. It is also a concern in Canada due to the amount of time that Canadians spend indoors because of cold weather and the potential for increased time indoors during the summer if theclimate warms. The negative health effects are often labeled assick building syndrome, but diagnosing a building or itsoccupants as sick is complicated by the variety of symptoms, thepresence of chronic versus acute symptoms and social andpsychological (socio-psychological) factors that may reduce theeffectiveness of an engineering solution. As a case study, thecontribution of various factors to indoor environmental health,in three buildings at the University of Toronto, was examinedusing five different methods. The results indicate that theinhabitants of the buildings consider features other than airquality in considering building health such as design,maintenance, funding cuts and socio-psychological factors.     

Ecoregions in the Southern Balkans: Should Their Boundaries Be Revised?

Ecoregion delineations have gained increased attention in Europe, especially following the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD), which provides the European Union’s first policy-relevant ecoregion map. However, the WFD’s ecoregions were created through a minor adaptation of Illies’ (Limnofauna Europaea. Gustav Fisher Verlag, Stuttgart, 1967/1978) freshwater zoogeographic regions, and the map’s specific boundaries have not been widely evaluated with respect to the WFD’s uses or their biogeographic accuracy. We examined the WFD ecoregion boundaries in Greece and its neighboring Balkan states by comparing them with the most prominent freshwater biogeographic boundaries as shown by riverine freshwater fish assemblages. Classification and ordination analyses of 23 river basin fish assemblages helped delineate natural faunal break boundaries in freshwater species assemblage distributions depicting major biogeographic barriers to aquatic biota dispersal. However, these biogeographic boundaries differ from those delineated in the WFD map, suggesting boundary errors and inconsistencies in the delineation method of the WFD ecoregions. We reviewed specific boundary disagreements and produced a map showing the region’s most prominent freshwater biogeographic boundaries by charting them on watershed borders among the four biotically dissimilar river basin groups in the southern Balkans. This regional evaluation reveals both a need to reconcile disparate approaches to ecoregion mapping and to promote the development of a new policy-relevant inland waters ecoregion framework that would support broad-scale water management and aquatic conservation.     

A new multipollutant, no-threshold air quality health index based on short-term associations observed in daily time-series analyses

Air quality indices currently in use have been criticized because they do not capture additive effects of multiple pollutants, or reflect the apparent no-threshold concentration-response relationship between air pollution and health. We propose a new air quality health index (AQHI), constructed as the sum of excess mortality risk associated with individual pollutants from a time-series analysis of air pollution and mortality in Canadian cities, adjusted to a 0-10 scale, and calculated hourly on the basis of trailing 3-hr average pollutant concentrations. Extensive sensitivity analyses were conducted using alternative combinations of pollutants from single and multipollutant models. All formulations considered produced frequency distributions of the daily maximum AQHI that were right-skewed, with modal values of 3 or 4, and less than 10% of values at 7 or above on the 10-point scale. In the absence of a gold standard and given the uncertainty in how to best reflect the mix of pollutants, we recommend a formulation based on associations of nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter of median aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 microm with mortality from single-pollutant models. Further sensitivity analyses revealed good agreement of this formulation with others based on alternative sources of coefficients drawn from published studies of mortality and morbidity. These analyses provide evidence that the AQHI represents a valid approach to formulating an index with the objective of allowing people to judge the relative probability of experiencing adverse health effects from day to day. Together with health messages and a graphic display, the AQHI scale appears promising as an air quality risk communication tool.     

The importance of late pregnancy scans for renal tract abnormalities

A 12-month prospective population study of antenatal patients was undertaken in a large district general hospital to assess ultrasound scanning in late pregnancy for the detection of non-lethal fetal renal abnormalities. The rate of false-negative antenatal scans during the study period was also assessed. Both 18–20 and 28–32 weeks' gestational scans were performed on 6497 pregnant women. Forty fetuses with a suspected abnormality were referred for postnatal examination and 29 neonates were found to have renal abnormalities. Of these, 21 were significant and eight were likely to be extrarenal pelves. In six, there was evidence of an abnormality at the early scan. Nine children, seven with reflux, presented within the study period, all with preceding normal antenatal scans. The incidence (0·46 per cent) of structural renal abnormalities is similar to that reported previously. A late scan is necessary for the antenatal detection of non-lethal renal abnormalities.