Minutes of meeting held on Friday 21st June 2002

1. The Chairman announced some recent changes in the Secretariat. Miss Cumberlidge had taken on a new area of work within the Department of Health. Her previous work for the Committee would now be covered by Miss Jenkins (Administrative Secretary) and Miss Lindup would provide scientific support including drafting the minutes.

Minutes of the Meeting held on 8 February 2002

2. The minutes were agreed with minor amendments and will be placed on the website.

Matters Arising

3. The Committee's statement on particles and cardiovascular admissions has been placed on the website. The work of the sub-group on air pollution and cardiovascular disease has been delayed as a result of the work on air pollution and asthma. A paper on openness will be prepared for the next meeting.

London Underground Dust

4. The Committee considered a draft statement summarising the Committee's views on the University of Surrey report on London Underground Dust published on www.thetube.com. Members considered that although the draft statement stated that the risks of the dust could not be assessed, there were in fact some areas where some assessment could be made (e.g. risks from the quartz content of the dust were likely to be low as mentioned in the previous statement). Extensive rearrangements of the statement were discussed. These would be considered by the Secretariat and a further draft prepared to be cleared by correspondence.

Unflued gas fires

5. Background information from the MAAPE and EPAQS reports on nitrogen dioxide reports were tabled. A number of suggested changes to the draft statement were discussed. This including making reference to vulnerable groups and noting that, for nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, the EPAQS standards were relevant for considering risks to health indoors since, for these pollutants, the EPAQS standards were based on chamber studies not epidemiological studies. A revised statement would be drafted by the Secretariat and agreed by correspondence in the next few weeks.

Is There a Threshold for the Effect of Ozone on Health?

6. The Committee agreed with focussing on studies using 8-hour average concentrations of ozone as had been done in the paper. It was considered that, although it might be difficult to combine studies of 1 hour and 24 hour average concentrations in the same meta-analysis, it was still worth considering this literature.

7. It was considered that there was sufficient evidence supporting an effect on some health outcomes to justify further work on whether there was a threshold, although it was noted that distinguishing a threshold could be difficult. Further work suggested included looking at publication bias, considering whether the coefficients changed according to date of publication and considering whether the size of the coefficients was dependent on the mean ozone concentration in the relevant city. A further paper on this, in addition to the deferred long term effects paper, would be considered at the next meeting.

Asthma and air pollution

8. The Committee considered the papers by Venn et al (2001) and McConnell et al (2002) that had received considerable press attention. Some draft conclusions were discussed and these will be incorporated into a draft statement to be cleared by written correspondence as soon as possible. The Committee was also informed that the Chairman has set up a sub-group on asthma and air pollution to consider the wider literature on this issue which it was important to take into account.

Research

9. The full proposals submitted in response to the Department's call for proposals for research into air pollution and health had been sent out for peer review and the peer reviewers comments received. Decisions had now been made as to which projects would be funded and accepted and rejected applicants had just been informed. The final list would be placed on the website soon.

10. It was suggested that Members should regard attendance at the annual research review meeting at IEH as an additional meeting or commitment as part of their COMEAP duties. This meeting was an excellent way of keeping informed about the latest research.

Any Other Business

COMEAP 5 Year Review

11. Dr Jeremy Metters CB, retired DCMO, would be conducting this review starting towards the end of the year.

Use of Generalised Additive Models in Time-Series studies

12. A brief paper on this was tabled. Members' attention was drawn to a cautionary note from NMMAPS workers in the US that had been placed on the John Hopkins website. This concerned the use of generalised additive models in the statistical program S plus. The default criteria in one particular part of the calculations were not sufficiently stringent and in certain cases this could result in an upward or downward bias in the coefficients. The NMMAPS result for PM10 and daily mortality had been halved as a result of correcting these default criteria. The APHEA group has reanalysed their data on PM10 and mortality or hospital admissions using the new criteria and find there is little change in their results.

Health Protection Agency

13. A consultation document on this was tabled.

Dates of Future Meetings

14. The next two meetings will be on 8 November 2002 and 21st February 2003 both in Skipton House.

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