Fine Particles and Cardiovascular Mortality - Ignored by Occupational Health Practitioners

Microgram for microgram, particulate air pollution is way more toxic than cigarette smoke. The cig exposure is way higher.

Once again, an exposure response relationship for actual death which starts well below the prevailing exposure levels in American manufacturing workplaces.


Circulation. 2004 Jan 6;109(1):71-7. Epub 2003 Dec 15.

Cardiovascular mortality and long-term exposure to particulate air pollution: epidemiological evidence of general pathophysiological pathways of disease.

Pope CA 3rd, Burnett RT, Thurston GD, Thun MJ, Calle EE, Krewski D, Godleski JJ.Brigham Young University, 130 FOB, Provo, UT 84602-2363, USA. cap3@email.byu.edu

Vital status, risk factor, and cause-of-death data, collected by the American Cancer Society as part of the Cancer Prevention II study, were linked with air pollution data from United States metropolitan areas. Cox Proportional Hazard regression models were used to estimate PM-mortality associations with specific causes of death. Long-term PM exposures were most strongly associated with mortality attributable to ischemic heart disease, dysrhythmias, heart failure, and cardiac arrest. For these cardiovascular causes of death, a 10-microg/m3 elevation in fine PM was associated with 8% to 18% increases in mortality risk, with comparable or larger risks being observed for smokers relative to nonsmokers. Mortality attributable to respiratory disease had relatively weak associations.

CONCLUSIONS: Fine particulate air pollution is a risk factor for cause-specific cardiovascular disease mortality via mechanisms that likely include pulmonary and systemic inflammation, accelerated atherosclerosis, and altered cardiac autonomic function. Although smoking is a much larger risk factor for cardiovascular disease mortality, exposure to fine PM imposes additional effects that seem to be at least additive to if not synergistic with smoking.