An Exploratory Analysis of the Relationship Between Mortality and the Chemical Composition of Airborne Particulate Matter

Abstract

We explored relationships between daily mortality and the major sources of airborne particulate matter (PM) using a newly developed approach, Factor Analysis and Poisson Regression (FA/PR). We hypothesized that by adding information on PM chemical speciation and source apportionment to typical PM epidemiological analysis, we could identify PM sources that cause adverse health effects. The FA/PR method was applied to a merged data set of mortality and extensive PM chemical speciation (including trace metals, sulfate, and extractable organic matter) in New Jersey. Statistically significant associations were found between mortality and several of the FA-derived PM sources, including oil burning, industry, sulfate aerosol, and motor vehicles. The FA/PR method provides new insight into potentially important PM sources related to mortality. For the data set we analyzed, the use of FA/PR to integrate multiple chemical species into source-related PM exposure metrics was found to be a more sensitive tool than the traditional approach using PM mass alone.

Estimating ground-level PM10 concentration in northwestern China using geographically weighted regression based on satellite AOD combined with CALIPSO and MODIS fire count

“…Numerous epidemiological studies have shown that there is an association between PM concentration and various adverse health outcomes (Li, Shao, & Yang, 2006;Tsai, Apte, & Daisey, 2000;Wan Mahiyuddin et al, 2013). Consequently, the assessment of air quality, particularly in terms of PM10 and PM2.5 (PMs with aerodynamic diameters less than 10 and 2.5 μm, respectively) and their compositions, is a pressing issue of the moment.…”

PM source apportionment and health effects: 2. An investigation of intermethod variability in associations between source-apportioned fine particle mass and daily mortality in Washington, DC

“…One natural progression of the PM health effects research is therefore to conduct a source apportionment of PM using chemical speciation data, and to examine the associations between source-apportioned PM and health outcomes, rather than with PM mass overall. There have been only a few studies that conducted such analyses (Ö zkaynak and Thurston, 1987;Ö zkaynak et al, 1996;Laden et al, 2000;Tsai et al, 2000;(reanalyzed by Schwartz, 2003); Mar et al, 2000(reanalyzed by Mar et al, 2003). These studies have provided some suggestive evidence that PM from certain combustion sources (i.e., secondary aerosols and traffic), but not other sources (e.g., soil), were associated with daily mortality.…”

Source Apportionment of Indoor, Outdoor, and Personal PM2.5in Seattle, Washington, Using Positive Matrix Factorization

“…Only recently have researchers possessed the tools and technologies to be able to examine the health effects of individual PM components [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and source types. [12][13][14][15][16][17] These efforts have been based on either traditional factor analysis or a priori source profiles.…”