SHORT NOTE OF MEETING 26th NOVEMBER 2004

Minutes of the last meeting

1. The minutes of the last meeting were agreed with minor changes.

Ozone report

2. The report on ozone will be published in two sections (i) a review of the evidence on whether ozone is linked to particular health effects and (ii) a review of the evidence on the shape of the exposure-response relationship. An advanced draft of the first section was presented to the Committee.

3. Points of discussion included:

• the different effects of adjustment of the ozone association for particles in different seasons
• the lack of an association of ozone with cardiovascular admissions when there was an association with cardiovascular mortality
• the fact that asthmatics were not especially sensitive to ozone but that the same level of response to ozone in asthmatics could matter more.

4. The report would be updated following the Committee's discussion and circulated to the Chairman and the subgroup. The revised conclusions to Chapter 9, the Executive Summary and Chapter 8 on long term effects would be circulated to the full Committee for comments in writing. This first section of the report would be placed on the website early next year.

Report on Air Pollution and Heart Disease

5. There was detailed discussion of the Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations chapter of this report.

6. Points of discussion included:

• whether 'inflammation' alone was a potential mechanism also (inflammation could also be involved in the thrombotic and neural reflex mechanisms)
• likely rough scale of the impact compared with passive smoking
• effect modification of short term effects
• which were the key pollutants? Mechanistic research had concentrated on particles but SO2 and CO showed large associations in some cases.

7. A draft of the rest of the report had been circulated as background to the discussion of the Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations chapter. However, it was not discussed in detail. This would be done at the February meeting.

Indoor Air

8. The 'Statement on Assessment of the Health Implications of Concentrations of Nitrogen Dioxide and Carbon Dioxide Indoors - Advice to HSE and DTI' was published on the COMEAP website on 14th October 2004. Publication of the COMEAP Guidance on the Effects on Health of Indoor Air Pollutants was imminent.

Any other business

9. The Committee was informed that the Freedom of Information Act would be coming into force in January 2005.

Date of next meeting

10. 18th February 2005.

December 2004

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