Assessing Adverse Health Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Low Levels of Ambient Air Pollution: Implementation of Causal Inference Methods.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Dominici F
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9530797 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Assessing Adverse Health Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Low Levels of Ambient Air Pollution: Implementation of Causal Inference Methods.
Dominici F F Zanobetti A A Schwartz J J Braun D D Sabath B B Wu X X
Research report (Health Effects Institute) 20220101 211
This report provides a final summary of the principal findings and key conclusions of a study supported by an HEI grant aimed at "Assessing Adverse Health Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Low Levels of Ambient Air Pollution." It is the second and final report on this topic. The study was designed to advance four critical areas of inquiry and methods development. First, it focused on predicting short- and long-term exposures to ambient fine particulate matter (PM<sub>2.5</sub>), nitrogen dioxide ...[more]
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Project description:BackgroundChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by progressive obstruction of airways due to chronic inflammation. Both genetic and environmental components are risk factors for COPD. The most common cause of COPD is smoking. However, evidence suggests that 17% to 38% of COPD patients are nonsmokers, so other factors like air pollution may also play a role.ObjectiveThe relationship between serum exosomes and exposure to particulate matter (PM) <2.5 and 10 micrometers (µm) in the residing environment of COPD patients and healthy groups was investigated. The correlation between inflammatory cytokine levels with exosome count was also studied.MethodsPeripheral blood samples were taken from 20 COPD patients without a smoking history or a family history of COPD, along with 20 nonsmoker healthy controls. The serum exosomes were counted by flow cytometry using a CD81 marker. The exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 was measured in daily, weekly, and monthly intervals based on the longitudinal measurements of the monitoring stations, and the correlation between exosome count and air pollutants was analyzed.ResultsThe serum CD81+ exosome count in COPD patients was significantly elevated compared to the healthy controls and this was correlated with daily PM10 (P-value=0.02) and monthly PM2.5 (P-value=0.02) exposure. Although interferon-gamma levels of COPD patients were higher than healthy controls, there was no correlation between exosome count and cytokine level.ConclusionsConsidering the significant relationship between air pollutants and the count of serum exosomes demonstrated in the present study, air pollution might be a considerable risk factor in the progression of airway inflammation.
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Project description:Maternal exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with adverse birth outcomes such as preterm delivery. However, only one study to date has linked air pollution to blood pressure changes during pregnancy, a period of dramatic cardiovascular function changes.We examined whether maternal exposures to criteria air pollutants, including particles of less than 10 ?m (PM(10)) or 2.5 ?m diameter (PM(2.5)), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)), sulfur dioxide (SO(2)), and ozone (O(3)), in each trimester of pregnancy are associated with magnitude of rise of blood pressure between the first 20 weeks of gestation and late pregnancy in a prospectively followed cohort of 1684 pregnant women in Allegheny County, PA.Air pollution measures for maternal ZIP code areas were derived using Kriging interpolation. Using logistic regression analysis, we evaluated the associations between air pollution exposures and blood pressure changes between the first 20 weeks of gestation and late pregnancy.First trimester PM(10) and ozone exposures were associated with blood pressure changes between the first 20 weeks of gestation and late pregnancy, most strongly in non-smokers. Per interquartile increases in first trimester PM(10) and O(3) concentrations were associated with mean increases in systolic blood pressure of 1.88 mm Hg (95% CI=0.84 to 2.93) and 1.84 (95% CI=1.05 to 4.63), respectively, and in diastolic blood pressure of 0.63 mm Hg (95% CI=-0.50 to 1.76) and 1.13 (95% CI=-0.46 to 2.71) in non-smokers.Our novel finding suggests that first trimester PM(10) and O(3) air pollution exposures increase blood pressure in the later stages of pregnancy. These changes may play a role in mediating the relationships between air pollution and adverse birth outcomes.
| S-EPMC3656658 | biostudies-literature