Health impacts from living near a major industrial park in Oman

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Abstract

Background

Oman is heading towards heavy industrialisation with rapid establishment of new industrial parks. One of these, the Sohar Industrial Zone (SIZ) started to operate in 2006 and includes many industries that potentially affect local air quality and the health status of its surrounding residents. The study aim was to assess the health effects in a population of ≥20 years old, living in the residential area around the SIZ.

Methods

Area-specific health care visits data for acute respiratory diseases (ARD), asthma, conjunctivitis and dermatitis were obtained for the period between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2010. Exposure was defined as distance from the SIZ to determine high, intermediate, and control exposure zones (≤5, >5–10, and ≥20 km from the SIZ respectively). Generalized additive models were used to model age and gender adjusted monthly health events for the selected diseases, adjusted for age and gender-specific population smoking prevalence. The high and intermediate exposure zones were later combined in the models because of their similarity of effects. Exposure effect modification by age, gender and socio-economic status (SES) were examined.

Results

Living within the high and intermediate exposure zones was associated with a greater risk ratio for ARD (RR: 2.02; 95 % CI: 1.88–2.17), asthma (RR: 3.61; 95 % CI: 2.96–4.41), conjunctivitis (RR: 2.83; 95 % CI: 2.47–3.24), and dermatitis (RR: 2.11; 95 % CI: 1.86–2.39), compared to the control exposure zone. Greater exposure effects were observed amongst ages ≥50 years and lower SES groups.

Conclusion

This is the first study carried out in Oman to assess the link between environmental exposure and health. These findings hope to contribute to building up evidence for environmental health and sustainable development policy in the country.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-1866-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Most cited references 35

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Traditional epidemiology, modern epidemiology, and public health.

N Pearce (1996)

There have been significant developments in epidemiologic methodology during the past century, including changes in basic concepts, methods of data analysis, and methods of exposure measurement. However, the rise of modern epidemiology has been a mixed blessing, and the new paradigm has major shortcomings, both in public health and in scientific terms. The changes in the paradigm have not been neutral but have rather helped change--and have reflected changes in--the way in which epidemiologists think about health and disease. The key issue has been the shift in the level of analysis from the population to the individual. Epidemiology has largely ceased to function as part of a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the causation of disease in populations and has become a set of generic methods for measuring associations of exposure and disease in individuals. This reductionist approach focuses on the individual, blames the victim, and produces interventions that can be harmful. We seem to be using more and more advanced technology to study more and more trivial issues, while the major causes of disease are ignored. Epidemiology must reintegrate itself into public health and must rediscover the population perspective.

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Risk of adverse birth outcomes in populations living near landfill sites.

P Elliott, D. Briggs, S. Morris … (2001)

To investigate the risk of adverse birth outcomes associated with residence near landfill sites in Great Britain. Geographical study of risks of adverse birth outcomes in populations living within 2 km of 9565 landfill sites operational at some time between 1982 and 1997 (from a total of 19 196 sites) compared with those living further away. Great Britain. Over 8.2 million live births, 43 471 stillbirths, and 124 597 congenital anomalies (including terminations). All congenital anomalies combined, some specific anomalies, and prevalence of low and very low birth weight (<2500 g and <1500 g). For all anomalies combined, relative risk of residence near landfill sites (all waste types) was 0.92 (99% confidence interval 0.907 to 0.923) unadjusted, and 1.01 (1.005 to 1.023) adjusted for confounders. Adjusted risks were 1.05 (1.01 to 1.10) for neural tube defects, 0.96 (0.93 to 0.99) for cardiovascular defects, 1.07 (1.04 to 1.10) for hypospadias and epispadias (with no excess of surgical correction), 1.08 (1.01 to 1.15) for abdominal wall defects, 1.19 (1.05 to 1.34) for surgical correction of gastroschisis and exomphalos, and 1.05 (1.047 to 1.055) and 1.04 (1.03 to 1.05) for low and very low birth weight respectively. There was no excess risk of stillbirth. Findings for special (hazardous) waste sites did not differ systematically from those for non-special sites. For some specific anomalies, higher risks were found in the period before opening compared with after opening of a landfill site, especially hospital admissions for abdominal wall defects. We found small excess risks of congenital anomalies and low and very low birth weight in populations living near landfill sites. No causal mechanisms are available to explain these findings, and alternative explanations include data artefacts and residual confounding. Further studies are needed to help differentiate between the various possibilities.

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Nordic Occupational Skin Questionnaire (NOSQ-2002): a new tool for surveying occupational skin diseases and exposure.

B. Olafsson, P Susitaival, Mikael Svensson … (2003)

Occupational skin diseases are among the most frequent work-related diseases in industrialized countries. Good occupational skin disease statistics exist in few countries. Questionnaire studies are needed to get more data on the epidemiology of occupational skin diseases. The Nordic Occupational Skin Questionnaire Group has developed a new questionnaire tool - Nordic Occupational Skin Questionnaire (NOSQ-2002) - for surveys on work-related skin disease and exposures to environmental factors. The 2 NOSQ-2002 questionnaires have been compiled by using existing questionnaires and experience. NOSQ-2002/SHORT is a ready-to-use 4-page questionnaire for screening and monitoring occupational skin diseases, e.g. in a population or workplace. All the questions in the short questionnaire (NOSQ-2002/SHORT) are included in the long version, NOSQ-2002/LONG, which contains a pool of questions to be chosen according to research needs and tailored to specific populations. The NOSQ-2002 report includes, in addition to the questionnaires, a comprehensive manual for researchers on planning and conducting a questionnaire survey on hand eczema and relevant exposures. NOSQ-2002 questionnaires have been compiled in English and translated into Danish, Swedish, Finnish and Icelandic. The use of NOSQ-2002 will benefit research on occupational skin diseases by providing more standardized data, which can be compared between studies and countries.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Adil Al-Wahaibi: Adil.Al-Wahaibi@brunel.ac.uk

Ariana Zeka: Ariana.Zeka@brunel.ac.uk

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Public Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Public Health

Title: BMC Public Health

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2458

Publication date (Electronic): 2 June 2015

Publication date PMC-release: 2 June 2015

Publication date Collection: 2015

Volume: 15

Electronic Location Identifier: 524

Affiliations

Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University London, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge, Middlesex United Kingdom UB8 3PH

Article

Publisher ID: 1866

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-015-1866-3

PMC ID: 4450448

PubMed ID: 26032629

SO-VID: 4759ca01-ff76-4f4d-be20-a6ef66368c1b

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 7 March 2015

Date accepted : 22 May 2015

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

Keywords: environmental exposure [n06.850.460.350],primary health care [n04.590.233.727],respiratory tract infections [c08.730],hypersensitivity [c20.543]

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

Keywords: environmental exposure [n06.850.460.350], primary health care [n04.590.233.727], respiratory tract infections [c08.730], hypersensitivity [c20.543]

Health impacts from living near a major industrial park in Oman

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Abstract

Background

Methods

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Electronic supplementary material

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Global Health Next Generation Network

Most cited references 35

Traditional epidemiology, modern epidemiology, and public health.

Risk of adverse birth outcomes in populations living near landfill sites.

Nordic Occupational Skin Questionnaire (NOSQ-2002): a new tool for surveying occupational skin diseases and exposure.

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