{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T06:06:46Z","timestamp":1784700406134,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784678400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Evidence on the association between ambient pollution and occupational hazards in Ecuador remains limited. This cross-sectional study evaluated the association between working conditions, satellite-derived ambient pollutants, geographic factors, and respiratory symptoms.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We analyzed 1,807 workers across four sectors. Respiratory symptoms (ECRHS) were cross-referenced with Sentinel-5P telemetry, utilizing z-score standardized environmental variables and selecting optimal spatial\/temporal concentration percentiles (p25, p50, p75, and p95) via the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) for each outcome. Multivariable penalized logistic regression (Firth\u2019s method) identified factors associated with respiratory symptoms.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Informal employment showed the strongest association with respiratory symptoms, including asthma (aOR 12.56; 95% CI: 5.09\u201332.87), wheezing (aOR 6.78; 95% CI: 1.83\u201327.89), chronic cough (aOR 4.14; 95% CI: 2.26\u20137.74), and chronic phlegm (aOR 2.53; 95% CI: 1.39\u20134.67). Direct workplace chemical inhalation, compounded by a complete lack of risk awareness, was associated with significantly higher odds for asthma, wheezing, and chronic cough. Geospatially, after controlling for canton-level altitude\u2014which acted as an independent protective factor against asthma (aOR 0.78; 95% CI: 0.66\u20130.93)\u2014nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emerged as the primary independent environmental predictors for chronic phlegm and cough, while ozone lost statistical significance.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion\/conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Informal employment and unprotected chemical inhalation are strongly associated with respiratory symptoms, frequently exceeding the risks observed in traditional high-exposure sectors. Furthermore, regional atmospheric pollution showed a significant statistical association with chronic respiratory outcomes at the cantonal level. Integrating high-resolution aerospace monitoring into occupational health surveillance represents a potential strategy to address these overlapping structural vulnerabilities; however, causal inference remains limited by the cross-sectional design.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1874197","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T05:53:36Z","timestamp":1784699616000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Respiratory symptoms in Ecuadorian workers associated with informal labor and cantonal satellite pollution metrics"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Juan Pablo","family":"Piedra","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ciencias M\u00e9dicas, Universidad de las Am\u00e9ricas","place":["Quito, Ecuador"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marco","family":"Erazo-Vallejo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ciencias M\u00e9dicas, Universidad de las Am\u00e9ricas","place":["Quito, Ecuador"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ketty","family":"Pinargote-Cede\u00f1o","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ciencias M\u00e9dicas, Universidad de las Am\u00e9ricas","place":["Quito, Ecuador"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rossana","family":"Mendoza-Lopez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Translational Research in Oncology, Instituto do C\u00e2ncer do Estado de S\u00e3o Paulo","place":["S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bernarda","family":"Espinoza-Castro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CIH-LMU Center for International Health, LMU University Hospital 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