Associations of PM _2.5 Constituents and Sources with Hospital Admissions: Analysis of Four Counties in Connecticut and Massachusetts (USA) for Persons ≥ 65 Years of Age

Abstract

Background: Epidemiological studies have demonstrated associations between short-term exposure to PM2.5 and hospital admissions. The chemical composition of particles varies across locations and time periods. Identifying the most harmful constituents and sources is an important health and regulatory concern.Objectives: We examined pollutant sources for associations with risk of hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory causes.Methods: We obtained PM2.5 filter samples for four counties in Connecticut and Massachusetts and analyzed them for PM2.5 elements. Source apportionment was used to estimate daily PM2.5 contributions from sources (traffic, road dust, oil combustion, and sea salt as well as a regional source representing coal combustion and other sources). Associations between daily PM2.5 constituents and sources and risk of cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations for the Medicare population (> 333,000 persons ≥ 65 years of age) were estimated with time-series analyses (August 2000–February 2004).Results: PM2.5 total mass and PM2.5 road dust contribution were associated with cardiovascular hospitalizations, as were the PM2.5 constituents calcium, black carbon, vanadium, and zinc. For respiratory hospitalizations, associations were observed with PM2.5 road dust, and sea salt as well as aluminum, calcium, chlorine, black carbon, nickel, silicon, titanium, and vanadium. Effect estimates were generally robust to adjustment by co-pollutants of other constituents. An interquartile range increase in same-day PM2.5 road dust (1.71 μg/m3) was associated with a 2.11% (95% CI: 1.09, 3.15%) and 3.47% (95% CI: 2.03, 4.94%) increase in cardiovascular and respiratory admissions, respectively.Conclusions: Our results suggest some particle sources and constituents are more harmful than others and that in this Connecticut/Massachusetts region the most harmful particles include black carbon, calcium, and road dust PM2.5.Citation: Bell ML, Ebisu K, Leaderer BP, Gent JF, Lee HJ, Koutrakis P, Wang Y, Dominici F, Peng RD. 2014. Associations of PM2.5 constituents and sources with hospital admissions: analysis of four counties in Connecticut and Massachusetts (USA) for persons ≥ 65 years of age. Environ Health Perspect 122:138–144; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1306656

HTAP2 multi-model estimates of premature human mortality due to intercontinental transport of air pollution and emission sectors

“…Short-term exposure to O 3 is associated with respiratory morbidity and mortality (Bell et al, 2005(Bell et al, , 2014Gryparis et al, 2004;Ito et al, 2005;Levy et al, 2005;Stieb et al, 2009) while long-term exposure to O 3 has been associated with premature respiratory mortality Turner et al, 2016). Short-term exposure to PM 2.5 has been associated with increases in daily mortality rates from all natural causes, and specifically from respiratory and cardiovascular causes (Bell et al, 2014;Du et al, 2016;Powell et al, 2015;Pope et al, 2011), while long-term exposure to PM 2.5 can have detrimental chronic health effects, including premature mortality due to cardiopulmonary diseases and lung cancer (Brook et al, 2010;Burnett et al, 2014;Hamra et al, 2014;Krewski et al, 2009;Lepeule et al, 2012;Lim et al, 2012). The Global Burden of Disease Study 2015 (GBD 2015) estimated 254 000 deaths per year associated with ambient O 3 and 4.2 million associated with ambient PM 2.5 (Cohen et al, 2017).…”

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“…For particles to remain suspended for some period of time before settling, the particles must be micron (µm) or submicron in size. This deliberate particulate pollution caused much concern because, as known from epidemiological studies, pollution particles with diameters ≤ 2.5 µm have been found to be associated with increased hospital admissions (Bell et al, 2014), morbidity and premature mortality (Dai, Zanobetti, Koutrakis, & Schwartz, 2014;Dockery et al, 1993;Pope III, Ezzati, & Dockery, 2009), risk for cardiovascular disease (Haberzettl et al, 2012), lung inflammation and diabetes (Potera, 2014), low birth weight (Ebisu & Bell, 2012), and reduced male fertility (Pires, de Melo, Mauad, Nascimento Saldiva, & de Siqueira Bueno, 2011). So that is why this researcher decided to investigate.…”

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“…Large-scale urban smog and haze phenomena, which are partly caused by vehicular emissions, have raised a wide range of concerns because increasing air pollution has been found to be associated with adverse human effects [8] with many epidemiological studies proving this fact [9][10][11][12][13]. Compared to inhalable particles (PM 10 ), PM 2.5 have more serious effects on human physical health because their small size can carry a variety of other pollutants, which means that the smaller the particle size, the greater the risk it would bring to the human body [14].…”