Expolis

The text on this page is taken from the EXPOLIS-project homepage.

EXPOLIS is a monitoring study that measured the population exposures to key air pollutants in six European cities. Concentrations were measured in home indoor, home outdoor and work indoor environments and in addition personal exposure were measured for 48hr with carry-on samplers. Measurements took place in 1996-1997.

Introduction

The health effects of the pollution are caused by the exposure of the population. EXPOLIS measured the population exposures to key air pollutants in six European cities.

In the Expolis study the population exposures to the key air pollutants were measured for the first time in Europe. This was one of the most important break throughs in the air pollution related public health research in the 90's.

The pollutants studied in the Expolis are fine particulates (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), the most interesting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the respect of environmental exposures and public health, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The populations studied are working age urban populations from large cities. Metropolitan area of Helsinki is the smallest of participating cities (1 million). Largest is Athens (4 million).

The Expolis field measurements were carried out 1996-97. Scientific and statistical data analyses are still going on.

EXPOLIS logo

The EXPOLIS study name, "Expolis" was created by Dennis Zmirou. The name comes from two stems:

• Exp stands for exposure
• Polis stands for a city (in greek)

The EXPOLIS logo was created by Otto Hänninen and Matti Jantunen. It features key aspects of the study:

The S-shaped curve describes the cumulative population exposure distribution. In this curve, the x-axes represents the exposure level and the y-axes is the cumulative frequency of the exposure.

The 3 different curves represent different exposure distributions in different cities or target populations.

The man and the woman on the logo stand for the human beings, the public, being exposed to the air pollutants. The ultimate aim of the EXPOLIS Study is to improve public health.

Giving feedback to us

The original EXPOLIS home pages were designed back in 1996-1997 by Ms MSc Paula Jantunen.

Feedback & requests for further information considering the work of KTL and the EXPOLIS project can be addressed to the EXPOLIS Project Coordinator, PhD Matti Jantunen and/or the head of KTL Air Hygiene Laboratory, PhD Sari Alm.

As the Internet is in the state of continuous development, many External links to the web change. If you run into a one, please let us know.

Expolis Coordinator

Matti Jantunen, PhD

KTL Air Hygiene Laboratory

Otto Hänninen, PhD

Comments on the page design

Otto Hänninen, PhD

Aleksi Jetsu, Technical support

Comments on the current contents e-mail: expoliswww(a)ktl.fi.This address is forwarded to the person currently responsible for updating the EXPOLIS pages.

Contacts

Contact information of institutes and researchers that originally participated the Expolis study. Contacts are organized by Institutes, which are in ordered by the name of the city.

Persons that participated the Expolis study at earlier stage, but have now moved to other postitions, are marked with an asterisk (*) and no address is given.

ATHENS

ATHENS University of Athens, Medical School

Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology

Mikras Asias 75, GR-Athens 11527

Principal Investigator:

Klea Katsouyanni, e-mail: kkatsoug(@)atlas.uoa.gr

Researchers:

Lambros Georgoulis*

Evi Samoli

Maria Caparis*

BILTHOVEN

RIVM

Department of Chronic Diseases and Environmental Epidemiology

P.O.Box 1, NL-3720 BA Bilthoven

Principal Investigator:

Erik Lebret, PhD, e-mail: erik.lebret(@)rivm.nl

Researchers:

Hanneke Kruize*

Oscarl Breugelmans*

HELSINKI - KTL

KTL

P.O.Box 95, FIN-70701 KUOPIO

Principal Investigator:

Matti Jantunen, PhD, e-mail: matti.jantunen(@)ktl.fi

Researchers:

Sari Alm*

Anu Kousa*

Tuulia Rotko, e-mail: tuulia.rotko(@)helsinki.fi

Kimmo Koistinen*

Otto Hänninen, e-mail: otto.hanninen(@)ktl.fi

Rufus Edwards*

Jouni Jurvelin*

Tuija Stambej*

Virpi Tenhola, e-mail: virpi.tenhola(@)ktl.fi

Tuula Pipinen*

Kirsi Kumpulainen*

MILAN

University of Milan, IOH

Principal Investigator:

Marco Maroni, Professor +2006

Researchers:

Paolo Carrer, e-mail: paolo.carrer(@)unimi.it

Domenico Cavallo, e-mail: domenico.cavallo(@)unimi.it

BASEL

University of Basel

Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine

Steinengraben 49, CH-4051 Basel

Principal Investigator:

Nino Künzli, MD PhD*, e-mail: kuenzli(@)usc.edu

Researchers:

Lucy Oglesby*

Patrick Mathys*

GRENOBLE

Université Joseph Fourier, Medical School

Domaine de la Merci, F-38706 La Tronche

Principal Investigator:

Dennis Zmirou, e-mail: dzmirou(@)ujf-grenoble.fr

Researchers:

Celine Boudet*

HELSINKI - VTT

VTT Chemical Technology

Betonimiehenkuja 5, FIN-02150 ESPOO

Principal Investigator:

Kristina Saarela, e-mail: kristina.saarela(@)vtt.fi

Researchers:

Marja-Leena Wilke, e-mail: marja-leena.wilke(@)vtt.fi

Jutta Laine-Ylijoki*

Kirsi Manninen*

Tiina Tirkkonen*

Markus Tähtinen*

PRAGUE

Regional Institute of Hygiene of Central Behomia

Laboratory of Genetic Ecotoxicology

Videnska 1083, CZ-14220 PRAGUE 4

Principal Investigator:

Radim Srám, MD, DSc, e-mail: sram(@)biomed.cas.cz

Researchers:

Eva Tischerova

Libuse Polanska, e-mail: khspro(@)pha.inecnet.cz

Original partners

Partners from 5 European Union member countries participated in the original study design:

• University of Athens, Greece, Dept. Hygiene and Epidemiology
• RIVM in Bilthoven, Netherlands
• Université Joseph-Fourier, Grenoble, France
• KTL in Helsinki, Finland (National Public Health Institute)
• VTT in Helsinki, Finland [VTT] ([Technical Research Centre of Finland)
• University of Milan, Italy
• Regional Institute of Hygiene of Central Bohemia in Prague, Czech Rebublic [Reg.Inst.Bohemia]
• Universität Basel, Switzerland

Partner from UK joined the study soon:

• Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK

Later, after the field phase in the original cities, new research groups have selected to utilize the EXPOLIS study design and measurement techniques.

Principal investigators

In each of the research institutes participating the EXPOLIS study, a responsible Principal Investigator is named. The Principal Investigators are listed below.

Matti Jantunen, Department Director, Coordinator

KTL, Dept. of Environmental Hygiene, Kuopio

Kristina Saarela, Senior Research Scientist

VTT, Chemical Technology, Helsinki

Marco Maroni, Professor + 2006

IOH, University of Milan

Yannis Tountas, Associate Professor

Medical School, University of Athens

Erik Lebret, Dr IR

RIVM, Bilthoven

Nino Künzli, MD PhD

Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine, Basle

Radim Srám, M.D., D.Sc.

Regional Institute of Hygiene of Central Bohemia

Denis Zmirou, Associate Professor

Medical School, University Joseph Fourier

Scientific advisory board

The EXPOLIS Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) involves some of the top international scientists in the area of exposure analysis. The members of SAB ensure that the most recent knowledge was and is available for making critical decisions on study design and analysis of data.

Petros Koutrakis, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Sciences

[Department of Environmental Health ]

[Harvard School of Public Health] MA, USA

Paul Lioy, Ph.D., Director

EOSHI, [Exposure Measurement and Assessment Division]

[Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety Institute], NJ, USA

Lars Mølhave, DMS, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Dept. of Occup. and Env. Medicine

Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health, Aarhus, DK

Demetrios Moschandreas, Ph.D., Professor

[Dept. of Chem. and Env. Engineering]

[Illinois Institute of Technology] IL, USA

Mary K O'Rourke, Dr.

[University of Arizona], Tucson, AZ, USA

Bernd Seifert, Prof., Director

Department of Environmental Hygiene

Federal Environmental Agency, Berlin

Martin Williams, Dr.

[Bad link: Department of the Environment] London, UK

William E Wilson, Dr.

[U.S. EPA]

[Research Triangle Park] NC, USA

See also

• Expolis
• Expolis/Study
• Expolis/Methods
• Expolis/Materials