Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association (1995)
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J Air Waste Manag Assoc · Jan 2018
Long-term associations of morbidity with air pollution: A catalog and synthesis.
I searched the National Institutes of Health MEDLINE database through January 2017 for long-term studies of morbidity and air pollution and cataloged them with respect to cardiovascular, respiratory, cancer, diabetes, hospitalization, neurological, and pregnancy-birth endpoints. The catalog is presented as an online appendix. Associations with PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <2.5 μm), PM10 (PM with an aerodynamic diameter <10 μm), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were evaluated most frequently among the 417 ambient air quality studies identified. ⋯ I conclude that the aggregate of these studies supports the existence of nonlethal physiological effects of various pollutants, more so for non-life-threatening endpoints and for noncriteria pollutants (TSP, EC, PM2.5 metals). However, most studies were cross-sectional analyses over limited time spans with no consideration of lag or disease latency. Further longitudinal studies are thus needed to investigate the progress of disease incidence in association with air pollution exposure.