sciensano.be
Published on sciensano.be (https://sciensano.be)

Home > Biblio > Environmental degradation and the increasing burden of allergic disease: The need to determine the impact of nitrogen pollution

Environmental degradation and the increasing burden of allergic disease: The need to determine the impact of nitrogen pollution

Health and environment  
[1]
Download 713.19 KB [1]

Public Access

Published

Peer reviewed scientific article

English

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3389/falgy.2023.1063982 [2]

Authors

Tobias Ceulemans [3]; Paulien Verscheure [4]; Caroline Shadouh [5]; Kasper Van Acker [6]; Brecht Devleesschauwer [7]; Catherine Linard [8]; Nicolas Dendoncker [9]; Speybroeck, Niko [10]; Nicolas Bruffaerts [11]; Olivier Honnay [12]; Schrijvers, Rik [13]; Raf Aerts [14]

Keywords

  1. Allergic disease [15]
  2. Biodiversity loss [16]
  3. Environmental degradation [17]
  4. Environmental Pollution [18]
  5. epidemiology [19]
  6. Nitrogen deposition [20]
  7. Pollen allergy [21]
  8. respiratory health [22]
Article written during project(s) : 
NITROPOL-BE Impacts of nitrogen deposition in the natural environment on pollen allergy and respiratory infection outcomes in Belgium [23]

Abstract:

Allergic diseases are a major public health problem and their burden is expected to keep increasing as a result of various interactions between changes in the environment and lifestyle. We argue that environmental degradation, driven by environmental nitrogen pollution from industry, agriculture and traffic, may be an important yet underexplored global driver of increased aeroallergen abundance and potency, leading to 1) altered allergenic landscapes, 2) higher allergy prevalence, and 3) higher allergy symptom severity.  Through multiple impacts on multiple traits at multiple levels…
Read more

Abstract

Allergic diseases are a major public health problem and their burden is expected to keep increasing as a result of various interactions between changes in the environment and lifestyle.

We argue that environmental degradation, driven by environmental nitrogen pollution from industry, agriculture and traffic, may be an important yet underexplored global driver of increased aeroallergen abundance and potency, leading to 1) altered allergenic landscapes, 2) higher allergy prevalence, and 3) higher allergy symptom severity.  Through multiple impacts on multiple traits at multiple levels, environmental nitrogen pollution may lead to changes in plant community composition and plant pollen biochemical properties that result in an escalating burden of allergic disease.

It is urgently needed to quantify the impact of nitrogen pollution on plant and pollen traits that determine allergenicity and symptom severity to understand, prevent, and control nitrogen-driven allergy risks to public health.  These insights are needed to better inform environmental policy with respect to the reduction of nitrogen pollution, which at present only aims to support the conservation of biodiversity and not to protect public health.  Improved policy measures may help to maintain the favorable conservation status of vulnerable habitats such as heathlands, but also help to sustain the habitability of areas prone to nitrogen pollution, such as urbanized and industrialized regions, and regions with intensive agriculture.

Associated health topics:

Pollen allergy [24]
Biodiversity [25]

Source URL:https://sciensano.be/en/biblio/environmental-degradation-and-increasing-burden-allergic-disease-need-determine-impact-nitrogen-0

Links
[1] https://sciensano.be/sites/default/files/falgy-04-1063982.pdf [2] https://doi.org/10.3389/falgy.2023.1063982 [3] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bauthor%5D=183480&f%5Bsearch%5D=Tobias%20Ceulemans [4] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bauthor%5D=183481&f%5Bsearch%5D=Paulien%20Verscheure [5] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bauthor%5D=183482&f%5Bsearch%5D=Caroline%20Shadouh [6] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bauthor%5D=183483&f%5Bsearch%5D=Kasper%20Van%20Acker [7] https://sciensano.be/en/people/brecht-devleesschauwer/biblio [8] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bauthor%5D=180529&f%5Bsearch%5D=Catherine%20Linard [9] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bauthor%5D=183484&f%5Bsearch%5D=Nicolas%20Dendoncker [10] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bauthor%5D=35724&f%5Bsearch%5D=Speybroeck%2C%20Niko [11] https://sciensano.be/en/people/nicolas-bruffaerts/biblio [12] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bauthor%5D=183486&f%5Bsearch%5D=Olivier%20Honnay [13] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bauthor%5D=41976&f%5Bsearch%5D=Schrijvers%2C%20Rik [14] https://sciensano.be/en/people/raf-aerts/biblio [15] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bkeyword%5D=37778&f%5Bsearch%5D=Allergic%20disease [16] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bkeyword%5D=37779&f%5Bsearch%5D=Biodiversity%20loss [17] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bkeyword%5D=37780&f%5Bsearch%5D=Environmental%20degradation [18] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bkeyword%5D=35505&f%5Bsearch%5D=Environmental%20Pollution [19] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bkeyword%5D=1560&f%5Bsearch%5D=epidemiology [20] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bkeyword%5D=37781&f%5Bsearch%5D=Nitrogen%20deposition [21] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bkeyword%5D=37782&f%5Bsearch%5D=Pollen%20allergy [22] https://sciensano.be/en/biblio?f%5Bkeyword%5D=25728&f%5Bsearch%5D=respiratory%20health [23] https://sciensano.be/en/projects/impacts-nitrogen-deposition-natural-environment-pollen-allergy-and-respiratory-infection-outcomes [24] https://sciensano.be/en/health-topics/pollen-allergy [25] https://sciensano.be/en/health-topics/biodiversity