Update in Occupational and Environmental Respiratory Disease 2007

Several original epidemiologic studies showing associations between specific environmental or occupational exposures and adverse respiratory effects were published in 2007. Such studies in large populations often rely, by necessity, on crude endpoints, such as mortality, respiratory symptoms obtained by questionnaires, or simple pulmonary function measurements. Although such observational studies may point to causal links between (presumed) exposure and disease, they must be completed by further epidemiologic studies that use more refined endpoints and/or more sophisticated designs, and by experimental studies that are needed to provide plausibility as well as mechanistic explanations for the observed findings. Thus, in an editorial, Kaufman (1) pointed to the importance to integrate epidemiologic and toxicology approaches to elucidate the mechanism of the effects of air pollution on health.