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Titel: Sotpartiklar gör luften farlig - igen [summary] (serie: Tema miljö och hälsa) 2007 nr 48 sid 3652-5
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Summary:
Already one hundred years ago local Public Health Boards in Swedish cities wrote in their annual reports about severe problems with smell and soot from polluting factories. However, it took until the many deaths reported during the big London smog in 1952 before the city medical officers started to demand for air pollution monitoring also in Swedish cities. In Gothenburg measurements started already in 1959 and the city medical officer doctor Spak also included a panel study of pollution effects on patients with chronic bronchitis. When the particle levels in western world thanks to legislation and various measures had decreased a lot during 1960s and 70s, some experts suggested that the health risks now were small since the concentrations mostly fell below the threshold for adverse effects. At this stage there was a great trust in air quality limits that appear very high in view of today's knowledge. At that time these standards were set at concentrations assumed to be below thresholds and harmless for most persons. In the beginning of the nineties a gradual revision of the existing risk assessment started. Particles and combustion components such as black smoke were shown to result in morbidity and mortality also at exposures well below the standards. Since then health impact calculations have become more in focus and limit values less useful. Our understanding of differences in toxicity between particles of various origins and size are increasing, but there are still many questions for example around the magnitude of the effects caused by road dust and wood smoke emissions.
Bertil Forsberg
Correspondence: Bertil Forsberg, Yrkes- och miljömedicin, Umeå universitet, SE-901 87 Umeå
bertil.forsberg@envmed.umu.se
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