Far-Reaching Consequences of High Level Air Pollution on the Developing Immune System

• Published in: Reviews on environmental health Vol. 16; no. 4; pp. 281 - 289
• Main Authors: Turnovska, T., Sirakova, I., Tzvetkova, T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany De Gruyter 2001
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - adverse effects; Bulgaria; Case-Control Studies; Child; Environmental Illness - immunology; Humans; Immune System - drug effects; Immune System - growth & development; Immunoglobulin A - blood; Immunoglobulin G - blood; Immunoglobulin M - blood; Bulgaria
• ISSN: 0048-7554; 2191-0308
• DOI: 10.1515/REVEH.2001.16.4.281

The town of Dimitrovgrad in Bulgaria has a highly industrialized region with a developing chemical industry, cement and asbestos-cement production, as well as energy production. For over four decades, the main ecological problem was air pollution, but after 1989 a great economic crisis led to an abrupt decline in the level of air pollutants. The aim of the present study was to investigate the present state of humoral immunity in teenage children from Dimitrovgrad who lived under conditions of massive air pollution during their intrauterine development and first few years of childhood. Immunoglobulins IgA, IgM, and IgG were measured in 106 clinically healthy children (average age 12.68 +/- 0.56 y) from 3 schools in Dimitrovgrad and in 41 control subjects (average age 12.35 +/- 0.22 y) from the town of Nova Mahala, an area lacking massive sources of air pollution. Immunoglobulin concentration was determined by turbidimetry using an Optima (KONE) chemical analyzer. The average IgA, IgM, and IgG levels in children from Dimitrovgrad did not differ significantly from those of the control group.