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November 2009, Vol 99, No. S3 | American Journal of Public Health S622-S628
© 2009 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.154955

RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

Global Goods Movement and the Local Burden of Childhood Asthma in Southern California

Laura Perez, MS, Nino Künzli, MD, PhD, Ed Avol, MS, Andrea M. Hricko, MPH, Fred Lurmann, MS, Elisa Nicholas, MD, Frank Gilliland, MD, PhD, John Peters, MD, ScD and Rob McConnell, MD

Laura Perez is with the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), in Barcelona, Spain. Nino Künzli is with CREAL, Barcelona, and the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies, Barcelona. Ed Avol, Andrea M. Hricko, Frank Gilliland, John Peters, and Rob McConnell are with the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Fred Lurmann is with Sonoma Technology Inc, Petaluma, CA. Elisa Nicholas is with the Miller Children's Clinic, Long Beach Memorial Hospital, Long Beach, CA.

Correspondence: Correspondence should be sent to Laura Perez, ISPM/STI, Steinengraben 49, 4051 Basel, Switzerland (e-mail: l.perez{at}unibas.ch). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking on the "Reprints/Eprints" link.

Objectives. As part of a community-based participatory research effort, we estimated the preventable burden of childhood asthma associated with air pollution in the southern California communities of Long Beach and Riverside.

Methods. We calculated attributable fractions for 2 air pollution reduction scenarios to include assessment of the newly recognized health effects associated with residential proximity to major roads and impact from ship emissions.

Results. Approximately 1600 (9%) of all childhood asthma cases in Long Beach and 690 (6%) in Riverside were attributed to traffic proximity. Ship emissions accounted for 1400 (21%) bronchitis episodes and, in more modest proportions, health care visits for asthma. Considerably greater reductions in asthma morbidity could be obtained by reducing nitrogen dioxide and ozone concentrations to levels found in clean coastal communities.

Conclusions. Both Long Beach and Riverside have heavy automobile traffic corridors as well as truck traffic and regional pollution originating in the Los Angeles–Long Beach port complex, the largest in the United States. Community-based quantitative risk analyses can improve our understanding of health problems and help promote public health in transportation planning.






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