Citation:

Spektor, D. AND e. al. EFFECTS OF HEAVY INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION ON RESPIRATORY FUNCTION IN THE CHILDREN OF CUBATAO, BRAZIL; A PRELIMINARY REPORT. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-92/279 (NTIS PB92217207), 1991.

Description:

Cubatao is located on the coast of Brazil 44 km from Sao Paulo. ts geography and wind patterns limit dispersion of air pollutants which result from heavy industrial activity within the city. ew York University and EPA in collaboration with the University of Sao Paulo are conducting a study to attempt to establish exposure-response relationships of the impact of specific industrial effluents on respiratory function in school age children. uring the 1988 school year, March-June, Aug-Nov, 600 six year old children, attending six different kindergarten schools, underwent monthly spirometry tests. ecause the children live within a 500 m radius of their school, pollution monitors were located on each of the six schools. articles were collected using dichotomous stacked filter units placed on 20 m towers to reduce the influence of dust from unpaved roads. hree sites are in the densely populated downtown area, one is on a newly developed outskirt area, and the last two are residential areas, far from industries. he yearly average thoracic aerosol mass concentration (PM10) is very high on all sites, ranging from 59+/-39 um/m3, to 240+/-122 um/m3, the number of days with mean PM10 >100 um/m3 range from 27% to 98%. hese results indicate that there has not been a significant reduction of PM10 concentrations since 1984 to 1988, when previous studies by USP showed grossly abnormal lung function in kindergarten children. he initial analyses in the current study show that respiratory airflow rates are significantly reduced in proportion to PM10 concentrations.

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