Dataset Information

Air quality-related health damages of food.

ABSTRACT: Agriculture is a major contributor to air pollution, the largest environmental risk factor for mortality in the United States and worldwide. It is largely unknown, however, how individual foods or entire diets affect human health via poor air quality. We show how food production negatively impacts human health by increasing atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), and we identify ways to reduce these negative impacts of agriculture. We quantify the air quality-related health damages attributable to 95 agricultural commodities and 67 final food products, which encompass >99% of agricultural production in the United States. Agricultural production in the United States results in 17,900 annual air quality-related deaths, 15,900 of which are from food production. Of those, 80% are attributable to animal-based foods, both directly from animal production and indirectly from growing animal feed. On-farm interventions can reduce PM_2.5-related mortality by 50%, including improved livestock waste management and fertilizer application practices that reduce emissions of ammonia, a secondary PM_2.5 precursor, and improved crop and animal production practices that reduce primary PM_2.5 emissions from tillage, field burning, livestock dust, and machinery. Dietary shifts toward more plant-based foods that maintain protein intake and other nutritional needs could reduce agricultural air quality-related mortality by 68 to 83%. In sum, improved livestock and fertilization practices, and dietary shifts could greatly decrease the health impacts of agriculture caused by its contribution to reduced air quality.

SUBMITTER: Domingo NGG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8158015 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Air quality-related health damages of food.

Domingo Nina G G NGG Balasubramanian Srinidhi S Thakrar Sumil K SK Clark Michael A MA Adams Peter J PJ Marshall Julian D JD Muller Nicholas Z NZ Pandis Spyros N SN Polasky Stephen S Robinson Allen L AL Tessum Christopher W CW Tilman David D Tschofen Peter P Hill Jason D JD

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20210501 20

Agriculture is a major contributor to air pollution, the largest environmental risk factor for mortality in the United States and worldwide. It is largely unknown, however, how individual foods or entire diets affect human health via poor air quality. We show how food production negatively impacts human health by increasing atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM<sub>2.5</sub>), and we identify ways to reduce these negative impacts of agriculture. We quantify the air quality-related health damag ...[more]

PMID: 33972419

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Project description:ObjectivesThe aim was to examine if a diagnostic intervention set up to assess current food allergy to cow's milk, hen's egg, fish, or wheat among teenagers had an impact on generic and disease specific health-related quality of life (HRQL). The study compared HRQL scoring before and two years after the intervention, and in relation to age matched controls without reported food allergy.MethodsThe study was performed within the Obstructive Lung Disease in Northern Sweden (OLIN) studies where a cohort study on asthma and allergic diseases among 8-year-old schoolchildren was initiated in 2006. At age 12 years, the 125/2612 (5%) children who reported allergy to cow's milk, hen's egg, fish, or wheat were invited to a diagnostic intervention including clinical examination, blood tests and evaluation by a pediatric allergist. Of 94 participants, 79 completed generic and disease specific HRQL questionnaires. Additionally, a random sample of 200 (62% of invited) children without food allergy from the OLIN cohort answered the generic HRQL questionnaire. The respondents of the HRQL questionnaires were re-examined two years later and 57 teenagers with and 154 without reported allergy participated.ResultsThere were no significant differences in generic HRQL scores between teenagers with and without reported food allergy at study entry, or after the intervention. Among those with reported food allergy, we found a significant improvement in disease specific HRQL after the intervention (mean values: 3.41 vs 2.80, p<0.001). Teenagers with only food allergy had better disease specific HRQL compared to those with one, two or three concomitant allergic diseases, both before and after the intervention. Children with only food allergy significantly improved their HRQL after the intervention, 1.84 vs. 2.87 (p<0.001) but this association was not seen in children with one other allergic disorder (3.16 vs. 3.65, p = 0.121) or those with two or more allergic disorders (3.72 vs. 3.90, p = 0.148).ConclusionThe diagnostic intervention showed a long-term improvement of disease specific HRQL but not generic HRQL.

Project description:BackgroundFood insecurity, limited or uncertain access to enough food for an active, healthy life, affected over 37 million Americans in 2018. Food insecurity is likely to be associated with worse health-related quality of life (HRQoL), but this association has not been measured with validated instruments in nationally representative samples. Given growing interest understanding food insecurity's role in health outcomes, it would be useful to learn what HRQoL measures best capture the experience of those with food insecurity.ObjectiveTo determine the association between food insecurity and several validated HRQoL instruments in US adults.DesignCross-sectional.ParticipantsUS adults (age ≥ 18), weighted to be nationally representative.Main measuresFood insecurity was assessed with three items derived from the USDA Household Food Security Survey Module. HRQoL was assessed using PROMIS-Preference (PROPr), which contains 7 PROMIS domains, self-rated health (SRH), Euroqol-5D-5L (EQ-5D), Health Utilities Index (HUI), and Short Form-6D (SF-6D).Key resultsIn December 2017, 4142 individuals completed at least part of the survey (31% response rate), of whom 4060 (98.0%) reported food security information. Of survey respondents, 51.7% were women, 12.5% self-identified as black, 15.8% were Hispanic, and 11.0% did not have a high school diploma. 14.1% of respondents reported food insecurity. In adjusted analyses, food insecurity was associated with worse HRQoL across all instruments and PROMIS domains (p < .0001 for all). The magnitude of the difference between food-insecure and food-secure participants was largest with the SF-6D, EQ-5D, and PROPr; among individual PROMIS domain scores, the largest difference was for ability to participate in social roles.ConclusionsFood insecurity is strongly associated with worse HRQoL, with differences between food-secure and food-insecure individuals best measured using the SF-6D, EQ-5D, and PROPr. Future work should develop a specific instrument to measure changes in HRQoL in food insecurity interventions.

Dataset Information

Air quality-related health damages of food.

Publications

Air quality-related health damages of food.

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