Monitoring air pollution effects on children for supporting public health policy: the protocol of the prospective cohort MAPEC study

Introduction: Genotoxic biomarkers have been
studied largely in adult population, but few studies so
far have investigated them in children exposed to air
pollution. Children are a high-risk group as regards the
health effects of air pollution and some studies
suggest that early exposure during childhood can play
an important role in the development of chronic
diseases in adulthood. The objective of the project is to
evaluate the associations between the concentration of
urban air pollutants and biomarkers of early biological
effect in children, and to propose a model for
estimating the global risk of early biological effects due
to air pollutants and other factors in children.
Methods and analysis: Two biomarkers of early
biological effects, DNA damage by the comet assay and
the micronuclei (MN) test, will be investigated in oral
mucosa cells of 6–8-year-old children. Concurrently,
some toxic airborne pollutants (polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbon (PAH) and nitro-PAH) and in vitro air
mutagenicity and toxicity in ultra-fine air particulates
(PM0.5) will be evaluated. Furthermore, demographic
and socioeconomic variables, other sources of exposures
to air pollutants and lifestyle variables will be assessed
by a structured questionnaire. The associations between
sociodemographic, environmental and other exposure
variables and biomarkers of early biological effect using
univariate and multivariate models will be analysed. A
tentative model for calculating the global absolute risk of
having early biological effects caused by air pollution and
other variables will be proposed.
Ethics and dissemination: The project has been
approved by the Ethics Committees of the local Health
Authorities. The results will be communicated to local
Public Health Agencies, for supporting educational
programmes and health policy strategies. LIFE+2012
Environment Policy and Governance. LIFE12 ENV/IT/
000614.