ESCAPE (European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects)

ESCAPE (European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects) is a collaboration of more than 30 European cohort studies including some 900,000 subjects.

It is aimed at quantifying health impacts of air pollution and at reducing uncertainty. ESCAPE will also test new hypotheses on specific health effects of air pollution. ESCAPE will focus on effects of within-city, within-area and within-country contrasts in air pollution.

t will make measurements of airborne particulate matter and nitrogen oxides in selected regions in Europe. It will measure the chemical composition of the collected particles and it will store samples for future chemical and toxicological analyses (see diagram).

The objectives of the study are:

1. to develop a flexible methodology for assessment of long-term population exposure to air pollution focused primarily on fine particles, particle composition, and nitrogen oxides.
2. to apply the exposure assessment methodology on existing cohort studies of mortality and chronic disease in Europe that have been selected based on their potential to quantify relationships between longterm exposure and health response precisely.
3. specifically, to investigate exposure-response relationships and thresholds for
   (a) adverse perinatal health outcomes, and development of diseases such as asthma in children;
   (b) respiratory disease endpoints in adults;
   (c) cardiovascular disease endpoints in adults;
   (d) all-cause and cause-specific mortality, and cancer incidence.
4. to develop a database for quantitative estimates of the health impacts of long-term exposure to air pollution for all of these health endpoints for the European population.

For further information see: http://www.escapeproject.eu/ or e-mail w.xun@imperial.ac.uk