How Low Can You Go? Air Pollution Affects Mortality at Very Low Levels

Overview

Journal Sci Adv

Specialties Biology
Science

Date 2022 Sep 28

PMID 36170354

Authors

Scott Weichenthal

Lauren Pinault

Tanya Christidis

Richard T Burnett

Jeffrey R Brook

Yen Chu

Dan L Crouse

Anders C Erickson

Perry Hystad

Chi Li

Randall V Martin

Jun Meng

Amanda J Pappin

Michael Tjepkema

Aaron van Donkelaar

Crystal L Weagle

Michael Brauer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released new guidelines for outdoor fine particulate air pollution (PM) recommending an annual average concentration of 5 μg/m. Yet, our understanding of the concentration-response relationship between outdoor PM and mortality in this range of near-background concentrations remains incomplete. To address this uncertainty, we conducted a population-based cohort study of 7.1 million adults in one of the world's lowest exposure environments. Our findings reveal a supralinear concentration-response relationship between outdoor PM and mortality at very low (<5 μg/m) concentrations. Our updated global concentration-response function incorporating this new information suggests an additional 1.5 million deaths globally attributable to outdoor PM annually compared to previous estimates. The global health benefits of meeting the new WHO guideline for outdoor PM are greater than previously assumed and indicate a need for continued reductions in outdoor air pollution around the world.

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