Exposure of Danish children to traffic exhaust fumes

This exposure study addresses the validity of the exposure assessment method of an epidemiological study of traffic-related air pollution and childhood cancer. In particular, this paper concerns the question of whether the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) outside the front door is a valid marker of the exposure of the child living at the address. The study includes 100 children living on streets with dense traffic in central parts of Copenhagen and 100 children living in rural areas. Preliminary results, based on 25% of the study subjects, suggest that both the outdoor NO2-concentration and the exposure of the children are two to three times higher in Copenhagen than in the rural districts. Moreover, the results suggest that the NO2-concentration outside the front door is a poor marker of the exposure of the children in Copenhagen, but a marker of some relevance for the exposure of the children in rural districts. The preliminary results must be treated with caution, as among other things, the analysis did not consider seasonal changes and indoor NO2-sources such as passive smoking, candles, and gas appliances.