Methods of Assessment of Pollutant-Induced Health Effects

Abstract

There are three primary research fields that provide data of interest to the area of the health effects of air pollution. They are animal toxicology and in vitro systems, controlled laboratory studies, and epidemiology. The three fields of endeavor in air pollution health effects research employ some of the same methods of assessment. For many years almost all the controlled human experiments with air pollutants relied on pulmonary function data as the outcome measure. However, there is increasing use of assessments that may detect more subtle effects of exposures. Also traditional studies of the health effects of air pollution were designed to detect adverse effects in the respiratory system as the lungs were assumed to be the primary target organ. As epidemiologic studies increasingly identified increased morbidity and mortality in persons with pre-existing cardiac disease, studies now are employing methods to detect adverse cardiac effects as well. A list of important assessment tools is given in Table 7–1.