Atmospheric metal deposition in a moss data correlation study with mortality and disease in the Netherlands

The present paper addresses the correlations between moss metal concentrations and epidemiological data on health and mortality rates in The Netherlands. Attention was given to both total and fractionated metal concentrations in the moss tissues, the latter by factor-analytical (mathematical) approaches, and to both grouped and specific diseases. Better than 95% probability correlations were found both for total moss elements and mortality due to specific diseases and for fractionated moss elements and mortality rates summed for grouped diseases. Overall, the presented data suggest that correlation studies between biomonitoring data on metal air pollution and (epidemiological) health data may prove valuable in turning attention to specific metal-health issues and in directing further study into possible dose–response mechanisms in air-associated metal epidemiology.