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How Improved Air Quality Saved Lives: Mediated Impact of Fine Particulate Matter Exposure on Cardiovascular Mortality in the United States
Citation:
Peterson, G., C. Hogrefe, A. Corrigan, L. Neas, R. Mathur, AND A. Rappold. How Improved Air Quality Saved Lives: Mediated Impact of Fine Particulate Matter Exposure on Cardiovascular Mortality in the United States. Joint Statistical Meeting 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA, July 28 - August 02, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This abstract of a proposed presentation introduces a statistical method for assessing the role of the temporal variation in air pollutants as a possible mediator of the temporal declines in US cardiovascular mortality rates.
Description:
Since the passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, significant improvements in air quality have been observed throughout the United States. Accountability research measures the causal effect of air quality improvement on human health in order to properly inform policy decisions on future regulatory action. Using mediation analysis with random mixed effects, we quantify the reduction of cardiovascular mortality rate in US counties that can be attributable to changes in annual average exposures to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) between 1990 and 2010. We further examine which PM2.5 components and their emission sectors most efficiently mediate the PM2.5-related cardiovascular mortality trend. We attribute approximately 5.4% of reduced cardiovascular deaths to changes in PM2.5 exposures. We determine that particulate sulfate exposures due to sulfur dioxide emissions contribute the most to the reduction in total PM2.5 -related cardiovascular mortality, but reducing elemental carbon exposure is more efficient at reducing cardiovascular mortality on per unit mass basis. [The statements in this abstract do not necessarily reflect the views of the EPA.]