American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on November 29, 2006
American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 165(4):435-443; doi:10.1093/aje/kwk016
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ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Relation between Concentration of Air Pollution and Cause-Specific Mortality: Four-Year Exposures to Nitrogen Dioxide and Particulate Matter Pollutants in 470 Neighborhoods in Oslo, Norway
1 Institute of General Practice and Community Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
2 National Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
3 Norwegian Public Road Administration, Oslo, Norway
Correspondence to Dr. Øyvind Næss, Institute of General Practice and Community Medicine, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1130 Blindern, 1130 Blindern Oslo 0318, Norway (e-mail: oyvind.nass{at}medisin.uio.no).
Received for publication January 24, 2006. Accepted for publication July 5, 2006.
This study investigated the concentration-response relation between air pollution (nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter pollutants PM10 and PM2.5) and cause-specific mortality. The population included all inhabitants of Oslo, Norway, aged 51–90 years on January 1, 1992 (n = 143,842) with follow-up of deaths from 1992 to 1998. An air dispersion model (AirQUIS; Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Oslo, Norway) was used to estimate levels of exposure in 1992–1995 in all 470 administrative neighborhoods. These data were linked to census, education, and death registries. A consistent effect on all causes of death was found for both sexes and age groups by all indicators of air pollution. The effects appeared to increase at nitrogen dioxide levels higher than 40 µg/m3 in the youngest age group and with a linear effect in the interval 20–60 µg/m3 for the oldest. An effect of all indicators on cardiovascular causes, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was also found in both age groups and sexes. The effects were particularly strong for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which appeared to have linear effects, whereas cardiovascular causes and lung cancer seemed to have threshold effects. Results show that vulnerable persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the elderly seem to be susceptible to air pollution at lower levels than the general population.
air pollution; cardiovascular diseases; cause of death; lung neoplasms; mortality; pulmonary disease, chronic obstructive
Abbreviations: COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; NO2, nitrogen dioxide; PM2.5, particulate matter less than 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter; PM10, particulate matter less than 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter