Læknablaðið - okt. 2019, Blaðsíða 36

452 LÆKNAblaðið 2019/105
Y F I R L I T
Greinin barst til blaðsins 18. júní, samþykkt til birtingar 12. september 2019.

This review is on air pollution in Iceland and how it affects human
health. Air pollution can be described as a condition, where levels
of compounds in the atmosphere are so high that it has undesirable
or harmful effects on the general public or undesirable effects on
the nature, flora and fauna, or man-built structures. Air pollution
can have anthropogenic sources such as burning of fossil fuels,
or natural sources such as volcanic eruptions, geothermal areas,
and resuspension of soil (sandstorms). Air pollution decreases
quality of health and shortens the lifespan. The health effects of
air pollution can be divided into direct effects on health where, air
pollution causes diseases and indirect effects, where air pollution
increases symptoms of underlying diseases. Health protection lim-
its are defined for certain ambient air pollutants. They are to act as
reference levels for safe for individuals and are put forth to protect
long-term human health. Outdoor air quality has been measured on
a regular basis in Reykjavik since 1986. For the first years, only PM10
was measured on a single station, but over the years the number of
pollutants measured has increased and more measuring stations
have been added.
In Iceland air quality is considered very good in general and the
ambient pollutant concentrations are usually within defined limits.
This is explained by multiple factors such as size of the country and
other geographical features as well as weather conditions. Natural
disasters can cause increased air pollutant concentrations, as recent
volcano eruptions have shown. Several studies have been conduct-
ed on the association of air pollution and health of the Icelandic
population, but it is essential that this association be examined
further to increase the knowledge of adverse health effects of air
pollution in Iceland.
Air pollution in Iceland and the effects on human health. Review
ENGLISH SUMMARY
1Department of Respiratory Medicine, Landspitali University Hospital, 2Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, 3The
Environment Agency of Iceland, team for climate change and air pollution, 4Center of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland.
Key words: Air pollution, Particulate matter, review, health effects.
Correspondence: Gunnar Guðmundsson, ggudmund@landspitali.is
Gunnar Guðmundsson1,2
Ragnhildur Guðrún Finnbjörnsdóttir3,4
Þorsteinn Jóhannsson3
Vilhjálmur Rafnsson4
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DOI: 10.17992/lbl.2019.10.252