Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Oct 1;184(7):828-35.
doi: 10.1164/rccm.201012-2082OC.

Long-term exposure to air pollution and cardiorespiratory disease in the California teachers study cohort

Michael J Lipsett  1 , Bart D Ostro, Peggy Reynolds, Debbie Goldberg, Andrew Hertz, Michael Jerrett, Daniel F Smith, Cynthia Garcia, Ellen T Chang, Leslie Bernstein
Affiliations

Long-term exposure to air pollution and cardiorespiratory disease in the California teachers study cohort

Michael J Lipsett et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. .

Abstract

Rationale: Several studies have linked long-term exposure to particulate air pollution with increased cardiopulmonary mortality; only two have also examined incident circulatory disease.

Objectives: To examine associations of individualized long-term exposures to particulate and gaseous air pollution with incident myocardial infarction and stroke, as well as all-cause and cause specific mortality.

Methods: We estimated long-term residential air pollution exposure for more than 100,000 participants in the California Teachers Study, a prospective cohort of female public school professionals.We linked geocoded residential addresses with inverse distance-weighted monthly pollutant surfaces for two measures of particulate matter and for several gaseous pollutants. We examined associations between exposure to these pollutants and risks of incident myocardial infarction and stroke, and of all-cause and cause-specific mortality, using Cox proportional hazards models.

Measurements and main results: We found elevated hazard ratios linking long-term exposure to particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5), scaled to an increment of 10 μg/m3 with mortality from ischemic heart disease (IHD) (1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.41) and, particularly among postmenopausal women, incident stroke (1.19; 95% CI, 1.02-1.38). Long-term exposure to particulate matter less than 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) was associated with elevated risks for IHD mortality (1.06; 95% CI, 0.99-1.14) and incident stroke (1.06; 95% CI, 1.00-1.13), while exposure to nitrogen oxides was associated with elevated risks for IHD and all cardiovascular mortality.

Conclusions: This study provides evidence linking long-term exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 with increased risks of incident stroke as well as IHD mortality; exposure to nitrogen oxides was also related to death from cardiovascular diseases.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Dockery DW, Pope CA, III, Xu X, Spengler JD, Ware JH, Fay ME, Ferris BG, Speizer FE. An association between air pollution and mortality in six US cities. N Engl J Med 1993;329:1753–1759 - PubMed
    1. Laden F, Schwartz J, Speizer FE, Dockery DW. Reduction in fine particulate air pollution and mortality. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2006;173:667–672 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pope CA, III, Burnett RT, Thurston GD, Thun MJ, Calle EE, Krewski D, Godleski JJ. Cardiovascular mortality and long-term exposure to particulate air pollution: epidemiological evidence of general pathophysiological pathways of disease. Circulation 2004;109:71–77 - PubMed
    1. Pope CA, III, Burnett RT, Thun MJ, Calle EE, Krewski D, Ito K, Thurston GD. Lung cancer, cardiopulmonary mortality, and long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution. JAMA 2002;287:1132–1141 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Miller KA, Siscovick DS, Sheppard L, Shepherd K, Sullivan JH, Anderson GL, Kaufman JD. Long-term exposure to air pollution and incidence of cardiovascular events in women. N Engl J Med 2007;356:447–458 - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances