Long-Term Exposure to Air Pollution and Cardiorespiratory Disease in the California Teachers Study Cohort

Abstract

Rationale: Several studies have linked long-term exposure to particulate air pollution with increased cardiopulmonary mortality; only two have also examined incident circulatory disease. Objectives: To examine associations of individualized long-term exposures to particulate and gaseous air pollution with incident myocardial infarction and stroke, as well as all-cause and causespecific mortality. Methods: We estimated long-term residential air pollution exposure for more than 100,000 participants in the California Teachers Study, a prospective cohort of female public school professionals. We linked geocoded residential addresses with inverse distance-weighted monthly pollutant surfaces for two measures of particulate matter and for several gaseous pollutants. We examined associations between exposure to these pollutants and risks of incident myocardial infarction and stroke, and of all-cause and cause-specific mortality, using Cox proportional hazards models. Measurements and Main Results: We found elevated hazard ratios linking long-term exposure to particulate matter less than 2.5 mm in aerodynamic diameter (PM 2.5 ), scaled to an increment of 10 mg/m 3 with mortality from ischemic heart disease (IHD) (1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.41) and, particularly among postmenopausal women, incident stroke (1.19; 95% CI, 1.02-1.38). Long-term exposure to particulate matter less than 10 mm in aerodynamic diameter (PM 10 ) was associated with elevated risks for IHD mortality (1.06; 95% CI, 0.99-1.14) and incident stroke (1.06; 95% CI, 1.00-1.13), while exposure to nitrogen oxides was associated with elevated risks for IHD and all cardiovascular mortality. Conclusions: This study provides evidence linking long-term exposure to PM 2.5 and PM 10 with increased risks of incident stroke as well as IHD mortality; exposure to nitrogen oxides was also related to death from cardiovascular diseases.

Tropospheric ozone and its precursors from the urban to the global scale from air quality to short-lived climate forcer

“…A further study by Jerrett et al (2009) using the same cohort found unstable risk estimates for ozone and all-cause, cardiopulmonary and cardiovascular mortality, with only respiratory mortality being associated with ozone after adjustment for PM 2.5 . For a more detailed discussion of these and other recent cohort studies (Smith et al, 2009;Zanobetti and Schwartz, 2011;Lipsett et al, 2011) than space here permits, the reader is referred to the REVIHAAP report.…”

Outdoor Particulate Matter Exposure and Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…We identified 17 cohort studies Beeson et al 1998;Cao et al 2011;Carey et al 2013;Cesaroni et al 2013;Hales et al 2012;Hart et al 2011;Heinrich et al 2013;Jerrett et al 2013;Katanoda et al 2011;Krewski et al 2009;Lepeule et al 2012;Lipsett et al 2011;McDonnell et al 2000;Naess et al 2007;Pope et al 2002;Raaschou-Nielsen et al 2013) and one case-control study (Hystad et al 2013) of lung cancer that provided estimates of the quantitative relationships between the risk of lung cancer and exposure to PM 2.5 or PM 10 that could be expressed per 10-μg/m 3 change in PM. Estimates from one cohort study (Naess et al 2007) could not be converted to units of 10-μg/m 3 , and thus, this study did not contribute to the meta-estimates.…”

Long-term characterization of organic and elemental carbon in the PM<sub>2.5</sub> fraction: the case of Athens, Greece

“…Carbonaceous aerosol contributes to global warming, and black carbon is considered as the second most important agent of global warming after CO 2 (Probert and Tarrant, 1989;Robock and Graf, 1994;Galdos et al, 2013). Recent epidemiologic studies, have displayed the risks of exposure to increased levels of carbonaceous aerosols, revealing notable associations with cardiovascular mortality and morbidity (Ostro et al, 2010;Lipsett et al, 2011;Krall et al, 2013).…”