Key Point

Air Pollution: Reminder of Health Recommendations

Peaks in air pollution have been reported in several French cities over the past week. In light of this, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has reiterated health recommendations, particularly for vulnerable individuals: http://www.sante.gouv.fr/pollution-de-l-air-recommandations-sanitaires.html

At the regional level, an episode of high concentrations of particulate matter (PM10) was reported by ORAMiP (Regional Air Quality Observatory in Midi-Pyrénées) for the afternoon of March 12, 2014, in the Toulouse metropolitan area and the Tarn-et-Garonne department. The information threshold was exceeded only on that day. http://www.oramip.org/

From a public health perspective, analysis of regional syndromic surveillance data (overall activity, asthma, fainting spells, dyspnea/acute respiratory failure, chronic bronchitis, heart failure, myocardial ischemia, headaches) across different age groups did not reveal any abnormal increases over the past few days.

However, several studies have shown that there does not appear to be a protective threshold below which no health impact is observed. The health effects of air pollution are observed even at the lowest concentrations, even in the absence of pollution "peaks." Thus, given the relative rarity of air pollution peaks in the region over the course of a year, the health impact of air pollution is primarily due to background levels of air pollution. Several cohort studies have shown that the long-term impact of chronic exposure to air pollution is significantly greater in terms of mortality or life expectancy than the short-term impacts observed.