The mortality associated with exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 has long been described, but few studies have used causal modeling methods that can help moving from statistical association to causal inference. Researchers at the Harvard/MIT ACE Center used three different methods to estimate the causal effect of local pollution on mortality in 135 US cities. Read More
Tag: air pollution
Health burden of indoor air
The residential energy and indoor air quality (REIAQ) model framework was developed by STAR grantees at the Illinois Institute of Technology as a tool for investigations on how energy use affects indoor air quality. The framework builds upon the EnergyPlus model (by Department of Energy) along with historical weather and air pollution data to predict Read More
Air pollution and chronic bronchitis
Air pollution exposure was found to be associated with chronic bronchitis (chronic cough and sputum production) in a recent study by researchers at the University of Washington. The study was conducted on the large Sisters Study cohort (about 50,000 participants), limiting analysis to never-smokers, and using exposure models to PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 developed for Read More
Summertime air quality and climate oscillations
Long-period atmospheric oscillations can have effects on summertime air quality in the Eastern US, based on two studies from Harvard researchers, and these effects can be relevant to air quality management. The first analysis shows that summertime air quality in the eastern US depends on the sea-surface temperature in the North Atlantic Ocean. Researchers used observations Read More
Traffic and plasma glucose
Proximity to roadways was associated with modestly higher blood glucose levels in healthy people, in a study supported by the Harvard Clean Air Research Center and the ACE center. Participants in the Framingham Offspring and Third generation cohorts (average age 51 years) in New England, who were without diabetes, and were examined for a variety Read More
Cost of traffic congestion: beyond just wasted time
The impact of traffic congestion during rush hours due to air pollution was estimated in terms of mortality and economic cost by researchers at the Harvard Clean Air Research Center and ACE Center. While other studies have examined on the effects of traffic emissions, the economic cost of traffic congestion has typically been estimated in Read More
Indoor effects of wildfires
Wildfire events can significantly increase indoor PM2.5 and VOCs, based on work by researchers at Washington State University. In a detailed analysis of air exchanges between indoor and ambient air, during and outside of wildfire events, researchers examined the indoor and outdoor concentrations of fine particles, ozone, and a number of VOCs in two test Read More
Short-term exposure to air pollution: mortality without threshold
Short-term exposure to PM2.5 and ozone were significantly associate with mortality risk without evidence of a threshold, in a study on the entire Medicare population. Researchers at the Harvard/MIT ACE center examined all-cause mortality risk associated with same-day and prior day exposure to PM2.5 and ozone (adjusting for simultaneous exposure) in a case-crossover design applied Read More
Nitrogen oxides and Interstitial Lung Disease
Exposure to nitrogen oxides was associated with Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) in a study on older adults part of the MESA Air project at the University of Washington. ILD is a group of chronic lung diseases characterized by pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis, affecting about 0.5% of older adults, and generally diagnosed late in the disease Read More
Factors in PM2.5 mortality
Numerous factors affect the association between PM2.5 and mortality, including individual and neighborhood socioeconomic status, PM composition and temperature. In a study of 13 million Medicare beneficiaries (older than 65) conducted in the SouthEastern US, researchers at the Harvard ACE Center examined exposures using a hybrid spatio-temporal model that represented more accurately rural populations and Read More