Association between Source-Specific Particulate Matter Air Pollution and hs-CRP: Local Traffic and Industrial Emissions

Abstract

Background: Long-term exposures to particulate matter air pollution (PM2.5 and PM10) and high traffic load have been associated with markers of systemic inflammation. Epidemiological investigations have focused primarily on total PM, which represents a mixture of pollutants originating from different sources.Objective: We investigated associations between source-specific PM and high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease.Methods: We used data from the first (2000–2003) and second examination (2006–2008) of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall study, a prospective population-based German cohort of initially 4,814 participants (45–75 years of age). We estimated residential long-term exposure to local traffic- and industry-specific fine particulate matter (PM2.5) at participants’ residences using a chemistry transport model. We used a linear mixed model with a random participant intercept to estimate associations of source-specific PM and natural log-transformed hs-CRP, controlling for age, sex, education, body mass index, low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, smoking variables, physical activity, season, humidity, and city (8,204 total observations).Results: A 1-μg/m3 increase in total PM2.5 was associated with a 4.53% increase in hs-CRP concentration (95% CI: 2.76, 6.33%). hs-CRP was 17.89% (95% CI: 7.66, 29.09%) and 7.96% (95% CI: 3.45, 12.67%) higher in association with 1-μg/m3 increases in traffic- and industry-specific PM2.5, respectively. Results for PM10 were similar.Conclusions: Long-term exposure to local traffic-specific PM (PM2.5, PM10) was more strongly associated with systemic inflammation than total PM. Associations of local industry-specific PM were slightly stronger but not significantly different from associations with total PM.Citation: Hennig F, Fuks K, Moebus S, Weinmayr G, Memmesheimer M, Jakobs H, Bröcker-Preuss M, Führer-Sakel D, Möhlenkamp S, Erbel R, Jöckel KH, Hoffmann B, Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study Investigative Group. 2014. Association between source-specific particulate matter air pollution and hs-CRP: local traffic and industrial emissions. Environ Health Perspect 122:703–710; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1307081

Comparison of Land-Use Regression Modeling with Dispersion and Chemistry Transport Modeling to Assign Air Pollution Concentrations within the Ruhr Area

“…In our study area the decreasing west-to-east gradient mirrors the distribution of industrial locations, e.g., metallurgical-industry and Europe's largest inland harbour in Duisburg, located to the west of the study area (Figure 1), as well as transported emissions from other countries in the west of study area, e.g., the Netherlands or Great Britain. The decreasing north-to-south gradient on the other hand is consistent with the population density and the location of major arterial roads within our study area [32]. NO 2 concentrations estimated by EURAD-CTM showed an overall decrease between 2001 with 42.2 µg/m 3 and 2008 with 37.7 µg/m 3 , while a change between the ESCAPE-LUR and the back-extrapolated ESCAPE-LUR was not observed.…”

“…These observations indicate that EURAD-CTM and ESCAPE-LUR do not represent identical aspects of air pollution: while EURAD-CTM represents an area average similar to urban background concentrations, the ESCAPE-LUR was designed to predominantly estimate variability in local traffic-related air pollution, leading to a comparatively high correlation with local traffic-specific air pollution concentrations modeled by EURAD-CTM. The very low correlation with local industry-specific air pollution concentration at the residences indicates, that ESCAPE-LUR represents industry rather poorly compared to EURAD-CTM, where the overall spatial distribution (Figure 3) is mainly driven by industrial sources as has been observed in a previous study [32]. …”

“…We then calculated local traffic-specific or industry-specific AP by taking the difference AP TRA = AP´AP noTRA or AP IND = AP´AP noIND , respectively. In earlier studies, we applied this method to compare the health effects of PM, emitted from local traffic and local industrial sources within the Ruhr area on levels of highly-sensitive C-reactive protein, a marker of systemic inflammation [32].…”

Air Quality, Stroke, and Coronary Events

“…The results of the ESCAPE and HNR studies show linear exposure-effect relationships (20,21,29,31). Also, the associatons between particulate matter and the health sequelae listed above also occur beneath the currently valid European thresholds for particulate matter concentrations (20,21).…”

“…By contrast, the effect estimate decreases slightly when evaluating coronary events. Further results from the HNR study indicate a correlation between long-term concentrations of particulate matter at the home and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in serum (28,29), arterial blood pressure (30), and the degree and progression of intima-media thickness of the common carotid artery (a measure for subclinical atherosclerosis) (31,32). In addition, proximity to busy streets was associated with the degree of coronary artery calcification as measured with electron beam computed tomography (32).…”