Effects of long-term exposure to air pollytion on respiratory mortality; resyits of the ESCAPE Project

摘要

Background: Several studies have provided evidence that chronic exposure to traffic-related air pollution, as indicated by NOx and particulate matter (PM) concentrations, has an adverse effect on health. Aims: The present study aims to investigate the relationship of long term exposure to air pollution and respiratory mortality. Methods: Data from 16 ongoing cohort studies spread over Europe were used to investigate the association between long-term exposure to air pollution and respiratory mortality within the ESCAPE project. Respiratory mortality was defined as ICD-9 codes 460 - 519 or ICD-10 codes J00 - J99. Air pollution exposure was estimated by Land Use Regression (LUR) models at the baseline residential addresses of study participants, following a standardized procedure. We used cohort-specific hazard ratios (HRs) to perform meta-analyses and derive pooled estimates fo the associations between air pollutants and respiratory mortality. Results: The total number of participants was approximate 376,965, among which 1,447 were respiratory deaths. The HR and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) for a 20ug/m3 increase in NOX was 1.03 (0.94 -1.11) and for 5,000 motor vehicles/day of traffic intensity on the nearest road was 1.02 (0.94 -1.09). There was no indication of associations between other analyzed exposures and respiratory mortality. Conclusions: The present study does not report any statistically significant associations, but may suggest that long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution may have an effect on respiratory mortality.