Study shows increased mortality from long-term exposure to PM 2.5 in older Americans
Dominici F, Zanobetti A, Schwartz J, et al. Assessing Adverse Health Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Low Levels of Ambient Air Pollution: Implementation of Causal Inference Methods. Research Report 211. Jan 2022. Boston, MA: Health Effects Institute. Air pollution concentrations were studied in a cohort of 68.5 million older Americans between 2000 and 2016. “Two traditional regression approaches and three newly-developed causal inference approaches” showed:
“…increased risks of all-cause mortality of 6 to 8 % per 10 μg /m3 increase in PM 2.5 across the five approaches with larger effect estimates in a low exposure sub-cohort. The consistency of the associations across methods provides stronger support than past studies for… a causal effect between long-term exposure to PM 2.5 and mortality.”
Comment: Exposure to fine particulate matter of < 2.5 microns from cigarette smoke is known to cause immediate adverse effects on the body and is the reason for indoor air laws. More exposure both indoors and outdoors results in increased all-cause mortality and this study shows how outdoor air exposures affect older populations. https://www.healtheffects.org/system/files/dominici-rr-211-report_0.pdf
Stephen Hamann
