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Chronic Occupational Exposure to Traffic Pollution Is Associated with Increased Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Healthy Urban Traffic Control Police

Urban traffic officers in many low- and middle-income countries are exposed to high levels of traffic-related air pollutants (TRAP) while working vehicle control on heavily congested streets. The impact of chronic TRAP exposure on the cardiovascular health, including the carotid intima-media thickne...

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Autores principales: Balogun, Abdulrazak O., Weigel, M. Margaret, Estévez, Edmundo, Armijos, Rodrigo X.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10487607/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37681841
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176701
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author Balogun, Abdulrazak O.
Weigel, M. Margaret
Estévez, Edmundo
Armijos, Rodrigo X.
author_facet Balogun, Abdulrazak O.
Weigel, M. Margaret
Estévez, Edmundo
Armijos, Rodrigo X.
author_sort Balogun, Abdulrazak O.
collection PubMed
description Urban traffic officers in many low- and middle-income countries are exposed to high levels of traffic-related air pollutants (TRAP) while working vehicle control on heavily congested streets. The impact of chronic TRAP exposure on the cardiovascular health, including the carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), of this outdoor occupational group remains unclear. This cross-sectional study compared the average mean and maximum CIMT measurements of two groups of relatively young, healthy traffic police (32 ± 7 years; 77% male) in Quito, Ecuador, who were without clinical evidence of serious cardiovascular or other disease. Previously published background data on PM(10) (a TRAP surrogate) indicated that street levels of the pollutant were several orders of magnitude higher at the street intersections worked by traffic police compared to those working only in an office. Accordingly, officers permanently assigned to daily traffic control duties requiring them to stand 0–3 m from heavily trafficked street intersections were assigned to the high exposure group (n = 61). The control group (n = 54) consisted of officers from the same organization who were permanently assigned to office duties inside an administration building. Mean and maximum CIMT were measured with ultrasound. General linear models were used to compare the CIMT measurements of the high exposure and control groups, adjusting for covariates. The adjusted average mean and maximum CIMT measures of the high exposure group were increased by 11.5% and 10.3%, respectively, compared to the control group (p = 0.0001). These findings suggest that chronic occupational exposure to TRAP is associated with increased CIMT in traffic police. This is important since even small increases in arterial thickening over time may promote earlier progression to clinical disease and increased premature mortality risk.
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spelling pubmed-104876072023-09-09 Chronic Occupational Exposure to Traffic Pollution Is Associated with Increased Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Healthy Urban Traffic Control Police Balogun, Abdulrazak O. Weigel, M. Margaret Estévez, Edmundo Armijos, Rodrigo X. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Urban traffic officers in many low- and middle-income countries are exposed to high levels of traffic-related air pollutants (TRAP) while working vehicle control on heavily congested streets. The impact of chronic TRAP exposure on the cardiovascular health, including the carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), of this outdoor occupational group remains unclear. This cross-sectional study compared the average mean and maximum CIMT measurements of two groups of relatively young, healthy traffic police (32 ± 7 years; 77% male) in Quito, Ecuador, who were without clinical evidence of serious cardiovascular or other disease. Previously published background data on PM(10) (a TRAP surrogate) indicated that street levels of the pollutant were several orders of magnitude higher at the street intersections worked by traffic police compared to those working only in an office. Accordingly, officers permanently assigned to daily traffic control duties requiring them to stand 0–3 m from heavily trafficked street intersections were assigned to the high exposure group (n = 61). The control group (n = 54) consisted of officers from the same organization who were permanently assigned to office duties inside an administration building. Mean and maximum CIMT were measured with ultrasound. General linear models were used to compare the CIMT measurements of the high exposure and control groups, adjusting for covariates. The adjusted average mean and maximum CIMT measures of the high exposure group were increased by 11.5% and 10.3%, respectively, compared to the control group (p = 0.0001). These findings suggest that chronic occupational exposure to TRAP is associated with increased CIMT in traffic police. This is important since even small increases in arterial thickening over time may promote earlier progression to clinical disease and increased premature mortality risk. MDPI 2023-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC10487607/ /pubmed/37681841 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176701 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Balogun, Abdulrazak O.
Weigel, M. Margaret
Estévez, Edmundo
Armijos, Rodrigo X.
Chronic Occupational Exposure to Traffic Pollution Is Associated with Increased Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Healthy Urban Traffic Control Police
title Chronic Occupational Exposure to Traffic Pollution Is Associated with Increased Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Healthy Urban Traffic Control Police
title_full Chronic Occupational Exposure to Traffic Pollution Is Associated with Increased Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Healthy Urban Traffic Control Police
title_fullStr Chronic Occupational Exposure to Traffic Pollution Is Associated with Increased Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Healthy Urban Traffic Control Police
title_full_unstemmed Chronic Occupational Exposure to Traffic Pollution Is Associated with Increased Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Healthy Urban Traffic Control Police
title_short Chronic Occupational Exposure to Traffic Pollution Is Associated with Increased Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Healthy Urban Traffic Control Police
title_sort chronic occupational exposure to traffic pollution is associated with increased carotid intima-media thickness in healthy urban traffic control police
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10487607/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37681841
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176701
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