Publication Date

2016

Journal or Book Title

Environmental Health Perspectives

Abstract

Background: Several studies have estimated the burden of coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality from ambient regional particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5). The burden of near-roadway air pollution (NRAP) generally has not been examined, despite evidence of a causal link with CHD.

Objective: We investigated the CHD burden from NRAP and compared it with the PM2.5 burden in the California South Coast Air Basin for 2008 and under a compact urban growth greenhouse gas reduction scenario for 2035.

Methods: We estimated the population attributable fraction and number of CHD events attributable to residential traffic density, proximity to a major road, elemental carbon (EC), and PM2.5 compared with the expected disease burden if the population were exposed to background levels of air pollution.

Results: In 2008, an estimated 1,300 CHD deaths (6.8% of the total) were attributable to traffic density, 430 deaths (2.4%) to residential proximity to a major road, and 690 (3.7%) to EC. There were 1,900 deaths (10.4%) attributable to PM2.5. Although reduced exposures in 2035 should result in smaller fractions of CHD attributable to traffic density, EC, and PM2.5, the numbers of estimated deaths attributable to each of these exposures are anticipated to increase to 2,500, 900, and 2,900, respectively, due to population aging. A similar pattern of increasing NRAP-attributable CHD hospitalizations was estimated to occur between 2008 and 2035.

Conclusion: These results suggest that a large burden of preventable CHD mortality is attributable to NRAP and is likely to increase even with decreasing exposure by 2035 due to vulnerability of an aging population. Greenhouse gas reduction strategies developed to mitigate climate change offer unexploited opportunities for air pollution health co-benefits.

Comments

Reproduced from Environmental Health Perspectives: http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1408865

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1408865

Pages

193-200

Volume

124

License

UMass Amherst Open Access Policy

Funder

This study was partially supported by funds from an air quality violations settlement agreement between the South Coast Air Quality Management District, a California state regulatory agency, and BP (British Petroleum). Other funding support included National Institutes of Health grants P01ES022845, P01ES011627, P30ES007048, and R01ES016535; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant RD83544101; and the Hastings Foundation (Pasadena, California).

Additional Files
ehp.1408865.s001.acco.pdf (557 kB)
Download

Additional files available below

Share

COinS