Association between particulate matter and its chemical constituents of urban air pollution and daily mortality or morbidity in Beijing City

Abstract

Recent time series studies have indicated that daily mortality and morbidity are associated with particulate matters. However, about the relative effects and its seasonal patterns of fine particulate matter constituents is particularly limited in developing Asian countries. In this study, we examined the role of particulate matters and its key chemical components of fine particles on both mortality and morbidity in Beijing. We applied several overdispersed Poisson generalized nonlinear models, adjusting for time, day of week, holiday, temperature, and relative humidity, to investigate the association between risk of mortality or morbidity and particulate matters and its constituents in Beijing, China, for January 2005 through December 2009. Particles and several constituents were associated with multiple mortality or morbidity categories, especially on respiratory health. For a 3-day lag, the nonaccident mortality increased by 1.52, 0.19, 1.03, 0.56, 0.42, and 0.32% for particulate matter (PM)2.5, PM10, K(+), SO4(2-), Ca(2+), and NO3(-) based on interquartile ranges of 36.00, 64.00, 0.41, 8.75, 1.43, and 2.24 μg/m(3), respectively. The estimates of short-term effects for PM2.5 and its components in the cold season were 1 ~ 6 times higher than that in the full year on these health outcomes. Most of components had stronger adverse effects on human health in the heavy PM2.5 mass concentrations, especially for K(+), NO3(-), and SO4(2-). This analysis added to the growing body of evidence linking PM2.5 with mortality or morbidity and indicated that excess risks may vary among specific PM2.5 components. Combustion-related products, traffic sources, vegetative burning, and crustal component and resuspended road dust may play a key role in the associations between air pollution and public health in Beijing.

Ambient Air Pollution and Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest in Beijing, China

“…Another case-crossover study with a large sample size in Houston, Texas [9] of 11,677 OHCA events between 2004 and 2011 reported that an average increase of 6 µg/m 3 in PM 2.5 at Lag Day 2 was associated with an increased risk of OHCA (1.046; 95% CI: 1.012, 1.082). We presume that these inter-study differences may be due to the following: (1) study differences in the population characteristics and proportions of cases with various pre-existing cardiovascular diseases (e.g., the prevalence of cardiovascular disease is lower in China than in Western countries [35]); (2) differences in particulate matter composition of air pollution between Beijing and areas in developed countries [36]; and (3) differences in age structure. In the present study, we selected all age groups of study subjects, whereas previous studies have targeted elderly persons.…”

Association of time-serial changes in ambient particulate matters (PMs) with respiratory emergency cases in Taipei's Wenshan District

“…Depending on sources, PM composition can be different among cities [22] and shows obviously seasonal patterns, and some components of PM also show seasonal patterns. [23–25]. …”

Exposure to ambient particulate matter alters the microbial composition and induces immune changes in rat lung

“…Inhaled ambient PM represents important environmental exposures that have been linked to death and disease [1, 2]. Emerging epidemiological evidence also suggests that these exposures increase the risks of respiratory diseases [3–6].…”