Investigating health effects in a community surrounding a road tunnel stack – a cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: Extended tunnelled roadways requiring ventilation via exhaust stacks are an increasingly common solution to traffic congestion around the world. In response to community concerns about adverse health effects associated with emissions from a new road tunnel exhaust stack, despite no demonstrable change in local ambient air quality, we conducted a cross sectional study to test for an association between exposure to the exhaust stack emissions and the presence of eye, nose and throat symptoms. METHODS: Stack emissions were modelled and categorised into areas of high, medium and low levels of exposure to emissions. A telephone interview survey was conducted in these three zones. Multivariate analysis was undertaken using Cox Proportional Hazards modelling to estimate prevalence ratios between zones for eye, nose and throat symptoms. RESULTS: The prevalence of eye, nose and throat symptoms in the study area were 50 percent, 67 percent and 33 percent respectively and did not differ between the exposure zones. The presence of these symptoms was associated with a measure of reported "environmental worry". CONCLUSION: The study did not demonstrate a community wide health impact associated with modelled emissions but is unable to exclude the possibility of sensitive individuals being adversely affected.