Acute Effects of Particulate Matter on All-Cause Mortality in Urban, Rural, and Suburban Areas, Italy

Abstract

Background: Short-term exposure to particulate matter (PM) has been related to mortality worldwide. Most evidence comes from studies conducted in major cities, while little is known on the effects of low concentrations of PM and in less urbanized areas. We aim to investigate the relationship between PM and all-cause mortality at national level in Italy. Methods: Daily numbers of all-cause mortality were collected for all 8092 municipalities of Italy, from 2006 to 2015. A satellite-based spatiotemporal model was developed to estimate daily PM10 (inhalable particles) and PM2.5 (fine particles) concentrations at 1-km resolution. Multivariate Poisson regression models were fit to estimate the association between daily PM and mortality at province level, and then, results were pooled with a random-effects meta-analysis. Associations were estimated by combination of age and sex and degree of urbanization of the municipalities. Flexible functions were estimated to explore the shape of the associations at low PM concentrations. Results: We analyzed 5,884,900 deaths (40% among subjects older than 85 years, 60% occurring outside the main urban areas). National daily mean (interquartile range) PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were 23 (14) μg/m3 and 15 (11) μg/m3, respectively. Relative increases of mortality per 10 μg/m3 variation in lag 0–5 (average of last six days since death) PM10 and PM2.5 were 1.47% (95% Confidence Intervals (CI): 1.15%, 1.79%) and 1.96% (1.33%, 2.59%), respectively. Associations were highest among elderly and women for PM10 only, similar between rural and urbanized areas, and were present even at low concentrations, e.g., below WHO guidelines. Conclusions: Air pollution was robustly associated with peaks in daily all-cause mortality in Italy, both in large cities and in less urbanized areas of Italy. Current WHO Air Quality Guidelines (2021) for PM10 and PM2.5 are not sufficient to protect public health.

Environmental Health Risk Assessment of Air Pollutants in Online Motorcycle Taxi Drivers in the Special Capital Region of Jakarta

“…PM 10 has acute effects such as coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, eye irritation (19−20). Particulate dust has also been shown to be associated with the rapid worsening of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and exerts a harmful effect such as mortality even at very low concentrations (17,21). Hospital visits due to arrhythmia, cerebrovascular disease, high blood pressure, and ischemic heart disease can also be affected by exposure to an increase in 10 μg/m 3 PM 10 concentration.…”

Indication Variability of the Particulate Matter Sensors Dependent on Their Location

“…It has been shown that the smaller the particulate matter, the more hazardous it is [ 1 ]. The medical literature reveals lung cancer [ 18 , 19 ], chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [ 20 , 21 ], and other conditions [ 1 , 22 , 23 ] to be caused by carcinogenic compounds, heavy metals, benzo(α)pyrene, and black carbon stemming from the combustion of, i.e., coal in stoves.…”

Daily exposure to PM2.5and 1.5 million deaths: A time-stratified case-crossover analysis in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area

“…Highly spatially-resolved PM 2.5 predictions for exposure assessment along with individual-level health records, allows exploration of effect modification by the inclusion of individual (or area-level shared) characteristics which are difficult to consider when using aggregated data, like in traditional city-wide time-series studies (Wei et al, 2019; Yitshak-Sade et al, 2019). Age, sex, socio-economic status (SES), and race, are among the factors that seem to modify vulnerability to PM 2.5 exposure in high-income countries (Franklin et al, 2006; Heo et al, 2022; Renzi et al, 2021; Wang et al, 2020). Such characteristics are of interest for identification of vulnerable populations, science-based policy and targeted public-health interventions (Xu et al, 2020).…”