Gwynn R C, Burnett R T, Thurston G D
Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, Tuxedo, New York 10987-5007, USA.
Environ Health Perspect. 2000 Feb;108(2):125-33. doi: 10.1289/ehp.00108125.
A component of particulate matter (PM) air pollution that may provide one biologically plausible pathway for the observed PM air pollution-health effect associations is aerosol acidity (H(+)). An increasing number of observational studies have demonstrated associations between H(+) and increased adverse health effects in the United States and abroad. Although studies have shown significant H(+) associations with increased morbidity in the United States, similar associations have yet to be shown with daily mortality. We considered a 2.5-year record of daily H(+) and sulfate measurements (May 1988-October 1990) collected in the Buffalo, New York, region in a time-series analysis of respiratory, circulatory, and total daily mortality and hospital admissions. Other copollutants considered included particulate matter [less than/equal to] 10 microm in aerodynamic diameter, coefficient of haze, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Various modeling techniques were applied to control for confounding of effect estimates due to seasonality, weather, and day-of-week effects. We found multiple significant pollutant-health effect associations--most strongly between SO(4)(2-) and respiratory hospital admissions (as indicated by its t-statistic). Additionally, H(+) and SO(4)(2-) demonstrated the most coherent associations with both respiratory hospital admissions [H(+): relative risk (RR) = 1. 31; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.14-1.51; and SO(4)(2-): RR = 1. 18, CI, 1.09-1.28] and respiratory mortality (H(+): RR = 1.55, CI, 1. 09-2.20; and SO(4)(2-): RR = 1.24, CI, 1.01-1.52). Thus, acidic sulfate aerosols represent a component of PM air pollution that may contribute to the previously noted adverse effects of PM mass on human health, and the associations demonstrated in this study support the need for further investigations into the potential health effects of acidic aerosols.
细颗粒物（PM）空气污染的一个组成部分——气溶胶酸度（H⁺），可能为已观察到的PM空气污染与健康效应之间的关联提供了一条生物学上合理的途径。越来越多的观察性研究表明，在美国及其他国家，H⁺与日益增加的不良健康效应之间存在关联。尽管研究已表明在美国H⁺与发病率增加之间存在显著关联，但类似的关联在每日死亡率方面尚未得到证实。我们在对呼吸、循环及每日总死亡率和住院情况进行的时间序列分析中，考虑了纽约州布法罗地区收集的2.5年每日H⁺和硫酸盐测量记录（1988年5月至1990年10月）。所考虑的其他共同污染物包括空气动力学直径小于或等于10微米的颗粒物、霾系数、臭氧、一氧化碳、二氧化硫和二氧化氮。应用了各种建模技术来控制由于季节性、天气和星期效应导致的效应估计混杂情况。我们发现了多种显著的污染物与健康效应之间的关联——最强的是硫酸根离子（SO₄²⁻）与呼吸科住院情况之间的关联（由其t统计量表明）。此外，H⁺和SO₄²⁻与呼吸科住院情况[H⁺：相对风险（RR） = 1.31；95%置信区间（CI），1.14 - 1.51；SO₄²⁻：RR = 1.18，CI，1.09 - 1.28]和呼吸死亡率[H⁺：RR = 1.55，CI，1.09 - 2.20；SO₄²⁻：RR = 1.24，CI，1.01 - 1.52]均呈现出最一致的关联。因此，酸性硫酸盐气溶胶是PM空气污染的一个组成部分，可能导致了之前提到的PM质量对人类健康的不利影响，并且本研究中所展示的关联支持对酸性气溶胶潜在健康效应进行进一步调查的必要性。
