Is daily mortality associated specifically with fine particles?

摘要

Dear Editor, While recently reviewing a manuscript, I was led back to read a 1996 JA&WMA paper entitled, "Is daily mortality associated specifically with fine particles?" (Schwartz et al., 1996). This 19-year-old paper is iconic in the sense it is one of the first papers to apply sophisticated statistical techniques, leading to additional research by the same authors' team (and other groups) that influenced the current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines, for particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter (AD) nominally less than 2.5 μm (PM_(2.5)) (Laden et al., 2000; Schwartz, 2000; Schwartz, 2003; Zanobetti and Schwartz, 2005; Franklin et al., 2007; Schwartz et al., 2008; Zanobetti et al., 2014). However, I found it had some problematic areas that propagated, but if they are resolved, could further strengthen the team's conclusions and give stronger support to the upcoming review of the current EPA PM_(2.5) NAAQS.