| The Association between Fatal Coronary Heart Disease and Ambient Particulate Air Pollution: Are Females at Greater Risk? Lie Hong Chen, Synnove F. Knutsen, David Shavlik, W.
Lawrence Beeson, Floyd Petersen, Mark Ghamsary, and David Abbey Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California, USA Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of long-term ambient particulate matter (PM) on risk of fatal coronary heart disease (CHD) . A cohort of 3,239 nonsmoking, non-Hispanic white adults was followed for 22 years. Monthly concentrations of ambient air pollutants were obtained from monitoring stations [PM < 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) , ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide] or airport visibility data [PM < 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5) ] and interpolated to ZIP code centroids of work and residence locations. All participants had completed a detailed lifestyle questionnaire at baseline (1976) , and follow-up information on environmental tobacco smoke and other personal sources of air pollution were available from four subsequent questionnaires from 1977 through 2000. Persons with prevalent CHD, stroke, or diabetes at baseline (1976) were excluded, and analyses were controlled for a number of potential confounders, including lifestyle. In females, the relative risk (RR) for fatal CHD with each 10-µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was 1.42 [95% confidence interval (CI) , 1.06-1.90] in the single-pollutant model and 2.00 (95% CI, 1.51-2.64) in the two-pollutant model with O3. Corresponding RRs for a 10-µg/m3 increase in PM10-2.5 and PM10 were 1.62 and 1.45, respectively, in all females and 1.85 and 1.52 in postmenopausal females. No associations were found in males. A positive association with fatal CHD was found with all three PM fractions in females but not in males. The risk estimates were strengthened when adjusting for gaseous pollutants, especially O3, and were highest for PM2.5. These findings could have great implications for policy regulations. Key words: air pollution, coronary disease, ischemic heart disease, long-term exposure, mortality, particulate matter. Environ Health Perspect 113:1723-1729 (2005) . doi:10.1289/ehp.8190 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 2 August 2005]
Address correspondence to S. Knutsen, Loma Linda University, School of Public Health, Health Research, Evans Hall, Room 215, Loma Linda, CA 92350 USA. Telephone: (909) 558-4988. Fax: (909) 558-0268. E-mail: sknutsen@llu.edu Financial support is provided by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant CR-83054701. Although the research described in this article has been funded by the U.S. EPA, it has not been subjected to agency review and does not necessarily reflect the view of the agency. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 8 April 2005 ; accepted 1 August 2005. An erratum was published in Environ Health Perspect 114:A21 (2006) . The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |
