Ban Jie, Su Wenjing, Zhong Yu, Liu Cheng, Li Tiantian
China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China.
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
Sci Adv. 2022 Jul;8(26):eabm4097. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abm4097. Epub 2022 Jul 1.
The potential health impact of low-level ambient formaldehyde has been historically overlooked. We conducted a two-stage time series analysis to investigate associations between ambient formaldehyde and daily nonaccidental, circulatory, and respiratory mortality and six subtypes based on 5,325,585 deaths in 275 Chinese counties between 2013 and 2018 and estimated a concentration-response curve to identify overall associations. After controlling for confounders from meteorological factors, air pollutants, time trend, and day of the week effect, with a 1-part per billion (ppb) increase in the daily concentration of formaldehyde on lag0 day, we found that mortality risks in nonaccidental, circulatory, and respiratory diseases increased by 0.36%, 0.36% and 0.41%, respectively. The curve indicated a possible threshold concentration at approximately 5 ppb for significant impact on nonaccidental and circulatory diseases. We suggest that ambient formaldehyde may represent a potential threat to public health and needs further investigation to support timely pollution regulation and health protection.
低水平环境甲醛对健康的潜在影响在历史上一直被忽视。我们进行了两阶段时间序列分析，以研究2013年至2018年期间中国275个县的5325585例死亡病例中，环境甲醛与每日非意外、循环系统和呼吸系统死亡率以及六个亚型之间的关联，并估计了浓度-反应曲线以确定总体关联。在控制了气象因素、空气污染物、时间趋势和星期效应等混杂因素后，在滞后0天，甲醛日浓度每增加1十亿分之一（ppb），我们发现非意外、循环系统和呼吸系统疾病的死亡风险分别增加0.36%、0.36%和0.41%。该曲线表明，对于非意外和循环系统疾病产生显著影响的可能阈值浓度约为5 ppb。我们建议，环境甲醛可能对公众健康构成潜在威胁，需要进一步调查以支持及时的污染监管和健康保护。
