How low can you go? Air pollution affects mortality at very low levels.

ABSTRACT: The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released new guidelines for outdoor fine particulate air pollution (PM_2.5) recommending an annual average concentration of 5 μg/m³. Yet, our understanding of the concentration-response relationship between outdoor PM_2.5 and mortality in this range of near-background concentrations remains incomplete. To address this uncertainty, we conducted a population-based cohort study of 7.1 million adults in one of the world's lowest exposure environments. Our findings reveal a supralinear concentration-response relationship between outdoor PM_2.5 and mortality at very low (<5 μg/m³) concentrations. Our updated global concentration-response function incorporating this new information suggests an additio

SUBMITTER: Weichenthal S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9519036 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature