The South Durban Health Study

Principal Investigator

Thomas Robins

Co-Principal Investigators

Stuart Batterman, Graciela Mentz, Rajen Naidoo

Funding Sources

Durban Metro

About this Project

This study is investigating associations between exposures to common ambient air pollutants and respiratory health status (symptom prevalences and pulmonary function measures) in children living in both industrialized and non-industrialized areas of a large metropolitan city in South Africa. The South Durban Industrial Basin is a residential-industrial complex which arose during an era of racist (apartheid) governmental planning. One of the highest concentrations of industrial activity in Africa including two large petroleum refineries, sugar, paper and pulp mills, the international airport, enlarged trucking, harbor and rail facilities are intermingled with residential and recreational areas. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) are being used to examine associations between daily mean levels of ambient air pollutants (NO2, NO, SO2, and PM10) and symptom prevalence and measures of pulmonary function across 4 seasons among 423 primary schoolchildren in covariate age-adjusted models. Effect modification by genetic polymorphisms related to response oxidative stress is also being investigated.