Comparative Risk Analysis of Dioxins in Fish and Fine Particles from Heavy-Duty Vehicles
- 1 February 2008
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Risk Analysis
- Vol. 28 (1), 127-140
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2008.01005.x
Abstract
Dioxins and airborne fine particles are both environmental health problems that have been the subject of active public debate. Knowledge on fine particles has increased substantially during the last 10 years, and even the current, lowered levels in the Europe and in the United States appear to be a major public health problem. On the other hand, dioxins are ubiquitous persistent contaminants, some being carcinogens at high doses, and therefore of great concern. Our aim was to (a) quantitatively analyze the two pollutant health risks and (b) study the changes in risk in view of the current and forthcoming EU legislations on pollutants. We performed a comparative risk assessment for both pollutants in the Helsinki metropolitan area (Finland) and estimated the health effects with several scenarios. For primary fine particles: a comparison between the present emission situation for heavy-duty vehicles and the new fine particle emission standards set by the EU. For dioxins: an EU directive that regulates commercial fishing of Baltic salmon and herring that exceed the dioxin concentration limit set for fish meat, and a derogation (= exemption) from the directive for these two species. Both of these two decisions are very topical issues and this study estimates the expected changes in health effects due to these regulations. It was found that the estimated fine particle risk clearly outweighed the estimated dioxin risk. A substantial improvement to public health could be achieved by initiating reductions in emission standards; about 30 avoided premature deaths annually in the study area. In addition, the benefits of fish consumption due to omega-3 exposure were notably higher than the potential dioxin cancer risk. Both regulations were instigated as ways of promoting public health.Keywords
This publication has 23 references indexed in Scilit:
- A Quantitative Analysis of Fish Consumption and Coronary Heart Disease MortalityAmerican Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2005
- Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans, and biphenyls in the general population in FinlandChemosphere, 2005
- Practical Applications of Fish Oil ( -3 Fatty Acids) in Primary CareThe Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 2005
- Dioxin Revisited: Developments Since the 1997 IARC Classification of Dioxin as a Human CarcinogenEnvironmental Health Perspectives, 2004
- Global Assessment of Organic Contaminants in Farmed SalmonScience, 2004
- Omega 3 fatty acids and cardiovascular disease--fishing for a natural treatmentBMJ, 2004
- Meta-Analysis of Time-Series Studies of Air Pollution and Mortality: Update in Relation to the Use of Generalized Additive ModelsJournal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2003
- Association between mortality and indicators of traffic-related air pollution in the Netherlands: a cohort studyThe Lancet, 2002
- Lung Cancer, Cardiopulmonary Mortality, and Long-term Exposure to Fine Particulate Air PollutionJama-Journal Of The American Medical Association, 2002
- An IARC Evaluation of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-Dioxins and Polychlorinated Dibenzofurans as Risk Factors in Human CarcinogenesisEnvironmental Health Perspectives, 1998