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1999 Progress Report: Assessing Life-Shortening Associated with Exposure to Particulate Matter
EPA Grant Number: R827353C005Subproject: this is subproject number 005 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R827353
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: EPA Harvard Center for Ambient Particle Health Effects
Center Director: Koutrakis, Petros
Title: Assessing Life-Shortening Associated with Exposure to Particulate Matter
Investigators: Schwartz, Joel
Current Investigators: Schwartz, Joel , Bateson, T. , Coull, Brent , O’Neill, M. , Zanobetti, Antonella
Institution: Harvard University
EPA Project Officer: Stacey Katz/Gail Robarge,
Project Period: June 1, 1999 through May 31, 2005 (Extended to May 31, 2006)
Project Period Covered by this Report: June 1, 1999 through May 31, 2000
Project Amount: Refer to main center abstract for funding details.
RFA: Airborne Particulate Matter (PM) Centers (1999)
Research Category: Particulate Matter
Description:
Objective:This project is one of four projects under Theme II: Identifying Populations Susceptible to the Health Effects of Particulate Air Pollution of our proposal. This project was intended to address Particulate Matter Research Topic 10 identified by the National Research Council (NRC) - Methods for Statistical Analysis of Epidemiologic Studies. The main objective of this project is to examine whether particles advance mortality by a few days (harvesting) or have a more profound impact on public health. Progress Summary:
The epidemiologic studies of the effects of acute PM exposures on daily mortality and daily hospital admissions have been based on traditional time-series regression applied to single cities. The strength of these analyses has been the consistency of the results across cities. Composite estimates of effects across cities have been generated. Single city analyses have low power to assess confounding and effect modification. We have developed and applied new methods for combining results across multiple cities to assess confounding, effect modification, lag structures, and the shape of the dose response function.
These multi-city approaches have been applied to existing daily mortality and hospital admissions databases to assess confounding by gaseous co-pollutants (Schwartz, 2000) and effect modification (Schwartz, 2000; Zanobetti and Schwartz, 2000).
Assessing PM effects requires consideration of lag structures over multiple days. Estimation of distributed lag models was previously only feasible using ordinary linear methods. Zanobetti and colleagues (2000) have developed methods for estimating distributed lag models within the preferred generalized additive models.
We applied these distributed lag methods to daily mortality time series in 10 cities, and estimated the net effect of PM10 on daily cause-specific mortality up to 7 days after exposure and the shape of the lag structure (Braga, et al., 2000). A 10 µg/m3 increase in 7-day exposure to PM10 was associated with a 2.7 percent (95 percent CI 1.6 percent to 3.8 percent) increase in pneumonia deaths, a 1.7 percent (95 percent CI 0.1 percent to 3.3 percent) increase in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths, and a 0.6 percent (0.2 percent to 1.0 percent) increase in cardiovascular deaths. Respiratory deaths were more affected by PM10 exposure over several days prior, while cardiovascular deaths were more affected by PM10 exposure on the same day.
We applied nonparametric smoothing methods to assess the shape of the PM10 exposure response with daily mortality in 10 cities (Schwartz and Zanobetti, 2000). These city-specific exposure response functions were then combined across all cities. The combined exposure response function was very close to linear, and showed no indication of a threshold down to the lowest levels observed in the analysis.
Future Activities:The combined multi-city methods discussed in this report are being applied to other health outcome data and other cities. Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 22 publications for this subproject
Supplemental Keywords:particulate matter, PM2.5, PM10, air pollutants, particulates, health effects, exposure, ambient particles, susceptibility, metals, public policy, biology, engineering, epidemiology, toxicology, environmental chemistry, monitoring. , Air, Geographic Area, Scientific Discipline, Health, RFA, Susceptibility/Sensitive Population/Genetic Susceptibility, Molecular Biology/Genetics, Toxicology, Biology, Risk Assessments, genetic susceptability, Microbiology, Epidemiology, Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Microbiology, particulate matter, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Monitoring, State, ambient measurement methods, risk assessment, ambient air quality, cardiovascular disease, elderly, indoor air quality, inhalation, developmental effects, epidemelogy, lung cancer, respiratory disease, inhalation toxicology, pre-existing conditions, air quality, cardiopulmonary response, indoor exposure, molecular epidemiology, cardiopulmonary responses, human health risk, interindividual variability, genetic susceptibility, particle exposure, toxics, mortality studies, human health effects, particulates, respiratory, sensitive populations, ambient particle health effects, air pollution, children, Utah (UT), Connecticut (CT), ambient air monitoring, chemical exposure, dosimetry, exposure, inhaled particles, pulmonary, Illinois (IL), human susceptibility, biological mechanism , health risks, human exposure, Human Health Risk Assessment, pulmonary disease, Massachusetts (MA)
Relevant Websites:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/epacenter/homeframe.htm
Progress and Final Reports:
Original Abstract
2000 Progress Report
2001 Progress Report
2002 Progress Report
2003 Progress Report
Final Report
Main Center Abstract and Reports:
R827353 EPA Harvard Center for Ambient Particle Health Effects
Subprojects under this Center:
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R827353C001 Assessing Human Exposures to Particulate and Gaseous Air Pollutants
R827353C002 Quantifying Exposure Error and its Effect on Epidemiological
Studies
R827353C003 St. Louis Bus, Steubenville and Atlanta Studies
R827353C004 Examining Conditions That Predispose Towards
Acute Adverse Effects of Particulate Exposures
R827353C005 Assessing Life-Shortening Associated with Exposure to
Particulate Matter
R827353C006 Investigating Chronic Effects of Exposure to Particulate
Matter
R827353C007 Determining the Effects of Particle Characteristics on Respiratory Health of Children
R827353C008 Differentiating the Roles of Particle Size, Particle Composition,
and Gaseous Co-Pollutants on Cardiac Ischemia
R827353C009 Assessing Deposition of Ambient Particles in the Lung
R827353C010 Relating Changes in Blood Viscosity, Other Clotting Parameters,
Heart Rate, and Heart Rate Variability to Particulate and Criteria Gas Exposures
R827353C011 Studies of Oxidant Mechanisms
R827353C012 Modeling Relationships Between Mobile Source Particle Emissions and Population Exposures
R827353C013 Toxicological Evaluation of Realistic Emissions of Source Aerosols (TERESA) Study
R827353C014 Identifying the Physical and Chemical Properties of Particulate Matter Responsible for the Observed Adverse Health Effects
R827353C015 Research Coordination Core
R827353C016 Analytical and Facilities Core
R827353C017 Technology Development and Transfer Core