Dataset Information

Effect of air pollution control on life expectancy in the United States: an analysis of 545 U.S. counties for the period from 2000 to 2007.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:In recent years (2000-2007), ambient levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) have continued to decline as a result of interventions, but the decline has been at a slower rate than previous years (1980-2000). Whether these more recent and slower declines of PM2.5 levels continue to improve life expectancy and whether they benefit all populations equally is unknown. METHODS:We assembled a data set for 545 U.S. counties consisting of yearly county-specific average PM2.5, yearly county-specific life expectancy, and several potentially confounding variables measuring socioeconomic status, smoking prevalence, and demographic characteristics for the years 2000 and 2007. We used regression models to estimate the association between reductions in PM2.5 and changes in life expectancy for the period from 2000 to 2007. RESULTS:A decrease of 10 ?g/m in the concentration of PM2.5 was associated with an increase in mean life expectancy of 0.35 years (SD = 0.16 years, P = 0.033). This association was stronger in more urban and densely populated counties. CONCLUSIONS:Reductions in PM2.5 were associated with improvements in life expectancy for the period from 2000 to 2007. Air pollution control in the last decade has continued to have a positive impact on public health.

SUBMITTER: Correia AW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3521092 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effect of air pollution control on life expectancy in the United States: an analysis of 545 U.S. counties for the period from 2000 to 2007.

Correia Andrew W AW Pope C Arden CA Dockery Douglas W DW Wang Yun Y Ezzati Majid M Dominici Francesca F

Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) 20130101 1

<h4>Background</h4>In recent years (2000-2007), ambient levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) have continued to decline as a result of interventions, but the decline has been at a slower rate than previous years (1980-2000). Whether these more recent and slower declines of PM2.5 levels continue to improve life expectancy and whether they benefit all populations equally is unknown.<h4>Methods</h4>We assembled a data set for 545 U.S. counties consisting of yearly county-specific average PM2.5, ...[more]

PMID: 23211349

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Project description:BackgroundThe United States health care debate has focused on the nation's uniquely high rates of lack of insurance and poor health outcomes relative to other high-income countries. Large disparities in health outcomes are well-documented in the US, but the most recent assessment of county disparities in mortality is from 1999. It is critical to tracking progress of health reform legislation to have an up-to-date assessment of disparities in life expectancy across counties. US disparities can be seen more clearly in the context of how progress in each county compares to international trends.MethodsWe use newly released mortality data by age, sex, and county for the US from 2000 to 2007 to compute life tables separately for each sex, for all races combined, for whites, and for blacks. We propose, validate, and apply novel methods to estimate recent life tables for small areas to generate up-to-date estimates. Life expectancy rates and changes in life expectancy for counties are compared to the life expectancies across nations in 2000 and 2007. We calculate the number of calendar years behind each county is in 2000 and 2007 compared to an international life expectancy time series.ResultsAcross US counties, life expectancy in 2007 ranged from 65.9 to 81.1 years for men and 73.5 to 86.0 years for women. When compared against a time series of life expectancy in the 10 nations with the lowest mortality, US counties range from being 15 calendar years ahead to over 50 calendar years behind for men and 16 calendar years ahead to over 50 calendar years behind for women. County life expectancy for black men ranges from 59.4 to 77.2 years, with counties ranging from seven to over 50 calendar years behind the international frontier; for black women, the range is 69.6 to 82.6 years, with counties ranging from eight to over 50 calendar years behind. Between 2000 and 2007, 80% (men) and 91% (women) of American counties fell in standing against this international life expectancy standard.ConclusionsThe US has extremely large geographic and racial disparities, with some communities having life expectancies already well behind those of the best-performing nations. At the same time, relative performance for most communities continues to drop. Efforts to address these issues will need to tackle the leading preventable causes of death.

Project description:Pandemic "wave" usually refers to the rise and fall of the infections with time, however, for a large country, the variations due to geographical location could be considerable. In this work, we investigated COVID-19 infection and fatality across the U.S. during the pandemic waves in the pre-vaccination period (January 2020-December 2020). Focusing on counties with a population ≥100,000, the data from the entire period were first segmented into two equal phases roughly corresponding to the first pandemic wave and subsequent surge, and each phase was further divided into two zones based on infection rate. We studied the potential influences of six sociodemographic variables (population density, age, poverty, education, and percentage of Hispanic and African American population) and four air pollutants (PM2.5, NO2, SO2, and O3) on the differences in infection and fatality observed among different phases and zones. We noticed a distinct difference in the overall impact of COVID-19 between the two phases of the pre-vaccination period with a substantial decrease in the fatality in the second phase despite an increase in the infection. Analysis using log-linear regression modeling further revealed a shift in the impact of several risk factors considered in this study. For example, population density and lesser education were found to be significant for infection during the first phase of the pandemic alone. Furthermore, population density and lesser education along with poverty and NO2 level had a significant contribution to fatality during the first phase of the pandemic, while age over 65 years was important in both phases. Interestingly, the effects of many of these factors were found to be significant only in the zones with higher infection rates. Our findings indicate that the impacts of several well-known sociodemographic and environmental risk factors for COVID-19 are not constant throughout the course of the pandemic, and therefore, careful considerations should be made about their role when developing preventative and mitigative measures.

Project description:Using daily fine particulate matter (PM2.5) composition data from the 2000-2005 U.S. EPA Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) for over 200 sites, we applied multivariate methods to identify and quantify the major fine particulate matter (PM2.5) source components in the U.S. Novel aspects of this work were: (1) the application of factor analysis (FA) to multi-city daily data, drawing upon both spatial and temporal variations of chemical species; and, (2) the exclusion of secondary components (sulfates, nitrates and organic carbon) from the source identification FA to more clearly discern and apportion the PM2.5 mass to primary emission source categories. For the quantification of source-related mass, we considered two approaches based upon the FA results: 1) using single key tracers for sources identified by FA in a mass regression; and, 2) applying Absolute Principal Component Analysis (APCA). In each case, we followed a two-stage mass regression approach, in which secondary components were first apportioned among the identified sources, and then mass was apportioned to the sources and to other secondary mass not explained by the individual sources. The major U.S. PM2.5 source categories identified via FA (and their key elements) were: Metals Industry (Pb, Zn); Crustal/Soil Particles (Ca, Si); Motor Vehicle Traffic (EC, NO2); Steel Industry (Fe, Mn); Coal Combustion (As, Se); Oil Combustion (V, Ni); Salt Particles (Na, Cl) and Biomass Burning (K). Nationwide spatial plots of the source-related PM2.5 impacts were confirmatory of the factor interpretations: ubiquitous sources, such as Traffic and Soil, were found to be spread across the nation, more unique sources (such as Steel and Metals Processing) being highest in select industrialized cities, Biomass Burning was highest in the U.S. Northwest, while Residual Oil combustion was highest in cities in the Northeastern U.S. and in cities with major seaports. The sum of these source contributions and the secondary PM2.5 components agreed well with the U.S. PM2.5 observed during the study period (mean=14.3 ug/m3; R2= 0.91). Apportionment regression analyses using single-element tracers for each source category gave results consistent with the APCA estimates. Comparisons of nearby sites indicated that the PM2.5 mass and the secondary aerosols were most homogenous spatially, while traffic PM2.5 and its tracer, EC, were among the most spatially representative of the source-related components. Comparison of apportionment results to a previous analysis of the 1979-1982 IP Network revealed similar and correlated major U.S. source category factors, albeit at lower levels than in the earlier period, suggesting a consistency in the U.S. spatial patterns of these source-related exposures over time, as well. These results indicate that applying source apportionment methods to the nationwide CSN can be an informative avenue for identifying and quantifying source components for the subsequent estimation of source-specific health effects, potentially contributing to more efficient regulation of PM2.5.

Dataset Information

Effect of air pollution control on life expectancy in the United States: an analysis of 545 U.S. counties for the period from 2000 to 2007.

Publications

Effect of air pollution control on life expectancy in the United States: an analysis of 545 U.S. counties for the period from 2000 to 2007.

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