Determinants of personal and indoor PM2.5 and absorbance among elderly subjects with coronary heart disease

Abstract

Epidemiological studies have established an association between outdoor levels of fine particles (PM 2.5 ) and cardiovascular health. However, there is little information on the determinants of PM 2.5 exposures among persons with cardiovascular disease, a potentially susceptible population group. Daily outdoor, indoor and personal PM 2.5 and absorbance (proxy for elemental carbon) concentrations were measured among elderly subjects with cardiovascular disease in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Helsinki, Finland, during the winter and spring of 1998-1999 within the framework of the ULTRA study. There were 37 non-smoking subjects in Amsterdam and 47 in Helsinki. In Amsterdam, where there were enough exposure events for analyses, exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) indoors was a major source of between-subject variation in PM 2.5 exposures, and a strong determinant of PM 2.5 and absorbance exposures. When the days with ETS were excluded, within-subject variation accounted for 89% of the total variation in personal PM 2.5 and 97% in absorbance in Amsterdam. The respective figures were 66% and 61% in Helsinki. In both cities, outdoor levels of PM 2.5 and absorbance were major determinants of personal and indoor levels. Traffic was also an important determinant of absorbance: living near a major street increased exposure by 22%, and every hour spent in a motor vehicle by 13% in Amsterdam. The respective increases were 37% and 9% in Helsinki. Cooking was associated with increased levels of both absorbance and PM 2.5 . Our results demonstrate that by using questionnaires in connection with outdoor measurements, exposure estimation of PM 2.5 and its combustion originating fraction can be improved among elderly persons with compromised health.

Variability of environmental exposure to fine particles, black smoke, and trace elements among a Swedish population

“…Our finding that the exposure variability for most particulate air pollutants was dominated by the within-person variance component is in agreement with previous studies that reported between-person and within-person variance components for environmental exposures to PM 2.5 , BS, or other air pollutants (Lee et al, 2004;Rappaport and Kupper, 2004;Egeghy et al, 2005;Lin et al, 2005;Sorensen et al, 2005;Lanki et al, 2007;Sarnat et al, 2009). Studies of particulate exposures in occupational settings have also reported larger within-person than between-person variance components (e.g., Kromhout et al, 1993;Symanski et al, 2006;Hagstrom et al, 2008).…”

“…The median personal exposure to PM 2.5 in this study was comparable to levels reported from Boston , Seattle (Liu et al, 2003), and from Helsinki (Janssen et al, 2005;Lanki et al, 2007), but lower than levels reported from Minneapolis (Adgate et al, 2002), Toronto (Kim et al, 2005), Copenhagen (Sorensen et al, 2005), Vancouver (Ebelt et al, 2000), and Boston (Rojas-Bracho et al, 2004). Personal exposure to BS was lower than in Copenhagen (Sorensen et al, 2005), Helsinki, and Amsterdam (Janssen et al, 2005;Lanki et al, 2007).…”

“…Personal exposure to BS was lower than in Copenhagen (Sorensen et al, 2005), Helsinki, and Amsterdam (Janssen et al, 2005;Lanki et al, 2007). For the trace elements, the personal exposure was generally similar to levels measured in Helsinki (Janssen et al, 2005), except for Cl, which was higher in Gothenburg.…”

“…Factors that influence personal exposures to ambient particulate air pollution have been investigated in several studies with repeated-measures designs via mixed-effects models (e.g., Janssen et al, 1998Janssen et al, , 2005Ebelt et al, 2000;Liu et al, 2003;Rojas-Bracho et al, 2004;Kim et al, 2005;Sorensen et al, 2005;Adgate et al, 2007;Lanki et al, 2007;Brown et al, 2009). However, only a few studies of environmental exposures to various air pollutants also reported between-person and within-person variance components for the study groups (e.g., Lee et al, 2004;Rappaport and Kupper, 2004;Egeghy et al, 2005;Lin et al, 2005;Sorensen et al, 2005;Lanki et al, 2007;Sarnat et al, 2009), two of these studies investigated exposure to PM 2.5 and BS (Sorensen et al, 2005;Lanki et al, 2007).…”

“…However, only a few studies of environmental exposures to various air pollutants also reported between-person and within-person variance components for the study groups (e.g., Lee et al, 2004;Rappaport and Kupper, 2004;Egeghy et al, 2005;Lin et al, 2005;Sorensen et al, 2005;Lanki et al, 2007;Sarnat et al, 2009), two of these studies investigated exposure to PM 2.5 and BS (Sorensen et al, 2005;Lanki et al, 2007). These variance components have been more commonly estimated with personal exposure data collected from occupational settings (Kromhout et al, 1993;Preller et al, 1995;Rappaport et al, 1999;Burstyn et al, 2000;Liljelind et al, 2001;Symanski et al, 2001;Peretz et al, 2002;Hagstrom et al, 2008;Spaan et al, 2008).…”