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Current State of the Evidence: Air Pollution Impacts on Human Health
Citation:
Laden, F. AND L. M. NEAS. Current State of the Evidence: Air Pollution Impacts on Human Health. EM: AIR AND WASTE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION'S MAGAZINE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGERS. Air & Waste Management Association, Pittsburgh, PA, (November):8-13, (2011).
Impact/Purpose:
In this paper, we describe the epidemiologic air pollution literature where the exposure assessment is derived from the AQS. The review is organized by study design and emphasizes the exposure assessment used in each type of study. This brief review is not intended to be comprehensive for all of the epidemiologic literature on the adverse health effects associated with air pollution and its different constituents, but rather to highlight the important role that these NAAQS compliance-oriented monitoring data have played in key studies
Description:
Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated a consistent association between ambient levels of air pollution and adverse human health effects, including mortality and morbidity. Many of these studies have relied on the US Air Quality System (AQS) for exposure assessment. The AQS is an extensive nationwide monitoring network consisting of thousands of monitoring stations maintained by state/local/tribal agencies and coordinated nationally by the US EPA with the primary purpose of determining compliance with National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The sighting of pollution specific monitors and their monitoring frequency are determined by local conditions (e.g. population density, previous recorded concentrations, etc..) specified by federal regulations (1). Along with hourly and daily concentrations of the NAAQS "criteria pollutants" (carbon monoxide [CO], lead [Pb], nitrogen dioxide [N02] , particulate matter less than 2.5 and less than 10 microns in diameter [PM2.5 and PM lO] , ozone [03], and sulfur dioxide [S02]), the AQS also contains meteorological data, descriptive information about each monitoring station (e.g. its geographic location, purpose and operator), and data assurance/quality control information. In this paper, we describe the epidemiologic air pollution literature where the exposure assessment is derived from the AQS. The review is organized by study design and emphasizes the exposure assessment used in each type of study. This brief review is not intended to be comprehensive for all of the epidemiologic literature on the adverse health effects associated with air pollution and its different constituents, but rather to highlight the important role that these NAAQS compliance-oriented monitoring data have played in key studies. The epidemiologic literature has dealt with all of the NAAQS pollutants (figure 1). However, most studies (63%) have involved particulate matter, alone or in conjunction with other pollutants such as ozone or nitrates of oxygen. In this review, we do not attempt to summarize the findings for specific pollutants, but rather discuss more generally the effects of ambient air pollutants on the specific outcomes studied.
