Institute of Social Development and Health Management, Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard Identification and Control, School of Public Health, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430065, China.
Institute of Social Development and Health Management, Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard Identification and Control, School of Public Health, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430065, China.
J Hazard Mater. 2024 Aug 5;474:134714. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.134714. Epub 2024 May 23.
The potential health effects of airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) among general population remained extensively unstudied. This study sought to investigate the association of short-term exposure to low-level total and 7 carcinogenic PAHs with mortality risk.
We conducted an individual-level time-stratified case-crossover study in Jiangsu province of eastern China, by investigating over 2 million death cases during 2016-2019. Daily concentrations of total PAH and its 7 carcinogenic species including benzo[a]anthracene (BaA), benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), benzo[b]fluoranthene (BbF), benzo[k]fluoranthene (BkF), chrysene (Chr), dibenz[a,h]anthracene (DahA), and indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene (IcdP), predicted by well-validated spatiotemporal models, were assigned to death cases according to their residential addresses. We estimated mortality risk associated with short-term exposure to increase of an interquartile range (IQR) for aforementioned PAHs using conditional logistic regression.
An IQR increase (16.9 ng/m) in 2-day (the current and prior day) moving average of total PAH concentration was associated with risk increases of 1.90% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.71-2.09) in all-cause mortality, 1.90% (95% CI: 1.70-2.10) in nonaccidental mortality, 2.01% (95% CI: 1.72-2.29) in circulatory mortality, and 2.53% (95% CI: 2.03-3.02) in respiratory mortality. Risk increases of cause-specific mortality ranged between 1.42-1.90% for BaA (IQR: 1.6 ng/m), 1.94-2.53% for BaP (IQR: 1.6 ng/m), 2.45-3.16% for BbF (IQR: 2.8 ng/m), 2.80-3.65% for BkF (IQR: 1.0 ng/m), 1.36-1.77% for Chr (IQR: 1.8 ng/m), 0.77-1.24% for DahA (IQR: 0.8 ng/m), and 2.96-3.85% for IcdP (IQR: 1.7 ng/m).
This study provided suggested evidence for heightened mortality risk in relation to short-term exposure to airborne PAHs in general population. Our findings suggest that airborne PAHs may pose a potential threat to public health, emphasizing the need of more population-based evidence to enhance the understanding of health risk under the low-dose exposure scenario.
空气中多环芳烃（PAHs）对一般人群的潜在健康影响仍在广泛研究中。本研究旨在调查短期暴露于低水平总 PAH 和 7 种致癌 PAHs 与死亡率风险之间的关联。
我们在中国东部江苏省进行了一项个体水平的时间分层病例交叉研究，调查了 2016 年至 2019 年期间超过 200 万例死亡病例。根据居民地址，将通过经过良好验证的时空模型预测的总 PAH 及其 7 种致癌物质（苯并[a]蒽（BaA）、苯并[a]芘（BaP）、苯并[b]荧蒽（BbF）、苯并[k]荧蒽（BkF）、苯并[ghi]苝（Chr）、二苯并[a,h]蒽（DahA）和茚并[1,2,3-cd]芘（IcdP）的日浓度分配给死亡病例。我们使用条件逻辑回归估计与上述 PAHs 的短期暴露增加一个四分位距（IQR）相关的死亡率风险。
当前和前一天的 2 天（当前和前一天）移动平均总 PAH 浓度增加 16.9 ng/m，与全因死亡率、非意外死亡率、循环系统死亡率和呼吸系统死亡率的风险增加分别为 1.90%（95%置信区间 [CI]：1.71-2.09）、1.90%（95% CI：1.70-2.10）、2.01%（95% CI：1.72-2.29）和 2.53%（95% CI：2.03-3.02）相关。特定原因死亡率的风险增加范围为 BaA（IQR：1.6 ng/m）为 1.42-1.90%、BaP（IQR：1.6 ng/m）为 1.94-2.53%、BbF（IQR：2.8 ng/m）为 2.45-3.16%、BkF（IQR：1.0 ng/m）为 2.80-3.65%、Chr（IQR：1.8 ng/m）为 1.36-1.77%、DahA（IQR：0.8 ng/m）为 0.77-1.24%和 IcdP（IQR：1.7 ng/m）为 2.96-3.85%。
本研究为一般人群短期暴露于空气中 PAHs 与死亡率升高之间的关系提供了证据。我们的发现表明，空气中的 PAHs 可能对公共健康构成潜在威胁，强调需要更多基于人群的证据来增强对低剂量暴露情况下健康风险的理解。
