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This work aims to assess the exposure to permethrin of the adult French population from available contamination measurements of outdoor air, indoor air, and settled dust. Priority is given to the assessment of chronic exposure, given the potential of permethrin to induce cancers and/or endocrine disorders. A statistical method was devised to calculate exposure to permethrin by different pathways (inhalation, indirect dust ingestion, and dermal contact). This method considers anthropometric parameters, the population's space-time budget, and recent methods for calculating dermal exposure. Considering the media of interest, our results pointed to house dust as the main environmental source of permethrin exposure, followed by indoor and outdoor air. Dermal contact and indirect dust ingestion may be more important exposure pathways than inhalation. A sensitivity analysis indicated that exposure estimates were mainly affected by variability within contamination data. This study is the first step in aggregated exposure and risk assessment due to pyrethroid exposure. Outdoor air, indoor air, and settled dust may constitute significant exposure sources, in addition to diet, which could be important. The next step entails assessing internal doses and estimating the proportion of each exposure source and pathway relative to internal exposure.

An evaluation of the socio-economic costs of indoor air pollution can facilitate the development of appropriate public policies. For the first time in France, such an evaluation was conducted for six selected pollutants: benzene, trichloroethylene, radon, carbon monoxide, particles (PM2.5 fraction), and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). The health impacts of indoor exposure were either already available in published works or were calculated. For these calculations, two approaches were followed depending on the available data: the first followed the principles of quantitative health risk assessment, and the second was based on concepts and methods related to the health impact assessment. For both approaches, toxicological data and indoor concentrations related to each target pollutant were used. External costs resulting from mortality, morbidity (life quality loss) and production losses attributable to these health impacts were assessed. In addition, the monetary costs for the public were determined. Indoor pollution associated with the selected pollutants was estimated to have cost approximately €20 billion in France in 2004. Particles contributed the most to the total cost (75%), followed by radon. Premature death and the costs of the quality of life loss accounted for approximately 90% of the total cost. Despite the use of different methods and data, similar evaluations previously conducted in other countries yielded figures within the same order of magnitude. Keywords: Health impact assessment, Burden of disease, Cost of illness, Decision making

This study aims to test if CO 2 concentration could be used as a proxy for indoor air quality. It focuses on the observed correlations between concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and indoor air pollutants within two measurement campaigns in France (567 dwellings and 310 nurseries, kindergartens and elementary schools). In dwellings, the weekly averaged concentration of CO 2 was positively and significantly correlated with formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolein, benzene and particulate matter (PM 2.5 and PM 10 fractions). In schools, similar significant correlations were observed between CO 2 and both formaldehyde and benzene. With high concentration of CO 2 in dwellings and schools, the probability to exceed the pollutant health guideline values for long term exposure increased. CO 2 concentration was used as a diagnosis test to predict the probability to exceed a guideline value. The real gain in exceedance detection probability was at best +33% for acetaldehyde (guideline value of 9 μg/m 3 ) in dwellings and +23% for formaldehyde (guideline value of 10 μg/m 3 ) in schools. The optimum CO 2 concentration threshold that maximizes exceedance detection probability ranges from 660 ppm to 890 ppm depending on the pollutant. However, limiting CO 2 concentration is not enough to prevent exceedances to occur. CO 2 as a tracer of some pollution sources cannot be considered as a unique indoor air quality indicator. CO 2 is also often considered as a surrogate of ventilation rate. Hence, this study confirms that even with good ventilation conditions (i.e. low CO 2 level), the reduction of pollutant sources remains necessary to achieve a satisfactory indoor air quality.

The fibrogenicity and carcinogenicity of asbestos fibers are dependent on several fiber parameters including fiber dimensions. Based on the WHO (World Health Organization) definition, the current regulations focalise on long asbestos fibers (LAF) (Length: L ≥ 5 μm, Diameter: D < 3 μm and L/D ratio > 3). However air samples contain short asbestos fibers (SAF) (L < 5 μm). In a recent study we found that several air samples collected in buildings with asbestos containing materials (ACM) were composed only of SAF, sometimes in a concentration of ≥10 fibers.L-1. This exhaustive review focuses on available information from peer-review publications on the size-dependent pathogenetic effects of asbestos fibers reported in experimental in vivo and in vitro studies. In the literature, the findings that SAF are less pathogenic than LAF are based on experiments where a cut-off of 5 μm was generally made to differentiate short from long asbestos fibers. Nevertheless, the value of 5 μm as the limit for length is not based on scientific evidence, but is a limit for comparative analyses. From this review, it is clear that the pathogenicity of SAF cannot be completely ruled out, especially in high exposure situations. Therefore, the presence of SAF in air samples appears as an indicator of the degradation of ACM and inclusion of their systematic search should be considered in the regulation. Measurement of these fibers in air samples will then make it possible to identify pollution and anticipate health risk. © 2014 Boulanger et al. licensee BioMed Central Ltd., SCOPUS: re.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published