# Associations between air pollution and biomarkers of oxidative stress and lung damage in a large population-based sample of non-smoking adults in northern France

## TL;DR

This study found no link between air pollution and oxidative stress or lung damage biomarkers in a large sample of non-smoking adults in northern France.

## Contribution

The study is the first to examine these associations in a large general non-smoking adult population in northern France.

## Key findings

- No associations were found between air pollution and biomarkers like CC16 or 8-OHdG.
- The study had sufficient power to detect effects but found no significant results in non-smokers.
- Results contrast with previous findings in younger or asthmatic populations.

## Abstract

Air pollution is an environmental risk factor associated with lung and cardiovascular disease that may be mediated by physiological pathways such as oxidative stress. Previous studies have identified associations between air pollution and biomarkers of oxidative stress (8-OHdG, 4-HNE, and fluorescent oxidation products (FOPs)), as well as lung health marker CC16, in younger and asthmatic populations. The objective of this study of a large population-based sample of non-smoking adults was to explore the relationship between long-term and short-term atmospheric pollution exposures and plasma or urine levels of these biomarkers. Our study was a post-hoc analysis of the cross-sectional ELISABET study from 2011 to 2013. We included non-smoking inhabitants of Lille, France from the ELISABET study. We assessed mean pluri-annual residential and short-term exposures to atmospheric pollution components (PM10, NO2, and O3) and collected several biomarkers (CC16, 8-OHdG, 4-HNE, and fluorescent oxidation products (FOPs)). We searched for associations between pollutants and biomarkers using log-linear robust multivariate regressions. Our work did not show any association between short- or long-term exposure to air pollution components and CC16, 8-OHdG, 4-HNE or FOP in a large (980 subjects) sample of Lille’s general population, despite having sufficient statistical power to replicate previous findings of associations between air pollution and these biomarkers found in younger or asthmatic populations.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10653-025-02472-2.