Stafoggia, M.* ; Oftedal, B.* ; Chen, J.* ; Rodopoulou, S.* ; Renzi, M.* ; Atkinson, R.W.* ; Bauwelinck, M.* ; Klompmaker, J.O.* ; Mehta, A.* ; Vienneau, D.* ; Andersen, Z.J.* ; Bellander, T.* ; Brandt, J.* ; Cesaroni, G.* ; de Hoogh, K.* ; Fecht, D.* ; Gulliver, J.* ; Hertel, O.* ; Hoffmann, B.* ; Hvidtfeldt, U.A.* ; Jöckel, K.H.* ; Jørgensen, J.T.* ; Katsouyanni, K.* ; Ketzel, M.* ; Kristoffersen, D.T.* ; Lager, A.* ; Leander, K.* ; Liu, S.* ; Ljungman, P.L.S.* ; Nagel, G.* ; Pershagen, G.* ; Peters, A. ; Raaschou-Nielsen, O.* ; Rizzuto, D.* ; Schramm, S.* ; Schwarze, P.E.* ; Severi, G.* ; Sigsgaard, T.* ; Strak, M.* ; van der Schouw, Y.T.* ; Verschuren, M.* ; Weinmayr, G.* ; Wolf, K. ; Zitt, E.* ; Samoli, E.* ; Forastiere, F.* ; Brunekreef, B.* ; Hoek, G.* ; Janssen, N.A.H.*
Long-term exposure to low ambient air pollution concentrations and mortality among 28 million people: results from seven large European cohorts within the ELAPSE project.
Lancet Planet Health 6, e9-e18 (2022)
BACKGROUND: Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with premature mortality, but associations at concentrations lower than current annual limit values are uncertain. We analysed associations between low-level air pollution and mortality within the multicentre study Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe (ELAPSE). METHODS: In this multicentre longitudinal study, we analysed seven population-based cohorts of adults (age ≥30 years) within ELAPSE, from Belgium, Denmark, England, the Netherlands, Norway, Rome (Italy), and Switzerland (enrolled in 2000-11; follow-up until 2011-17). Mortality registries were used to extract the underlying cause of death for deceased individuals. Annual average concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2·5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), black carbon, and tropospheric warm-season ozone (O3) from Europe-wide land use regression models at 100 m spatial resolution were assigned to baseline residential addresses. We applied cohort-specific Cox proportional hazard models with adjustment for area-level and individual-level covariates to evaluate associations with non-accidental mortality, as the main outcome, and with cardiovascular, non-malignant respiratory, and lung cancer mortality. Subset analyses of participants living at low pollutant concentrations (as per predefined values) and natural splines were used to investigate the concentration-response function. Cohort-specific effect estimates were pooled in a random-effects meta-analysis. FINDINGS: We analysed 28 153 138 participants contributing 257 859 621 person-years of observation, during which 3 593 741 deaths from non-accidental causes occurred. We found significant positive associations between non-accidental mortality and PM2·5, NO2, and black carbon, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1·053 (95% CI 1·021-1·085) per 5 μg/m3 increment in PM2·5, 1·044 (1·019-1·069) per 10 μg/m3 NO2, and 1·039 (1·018-1·059) per 0·5 × 10-5/m black carbon. Associations with PM2·5, NO2, and black carbon were slightly weaker for cardiovascular mortality, similar for non-malignant respiratory mortality, and stronger for lung cancer mortality. Warm-season O3 was negatively associated with both non-accidental and cause-specific mortality. Associations were stronger at low concentrations: HRs for non-accidental mortality at concentrations lower than the WHO 2005 air quality guideline values for PM2·5 (10 μg/m3) and NO2 (40 μg/m3) were 1·078 (1·046-1·111) per 5 μg/m3 PM2·5 and 1·049 (1·024-1·075) per 10 μg/m3 NO2. Similarly, the association between black carbon and non-accidental mortality was highest at low concentrations, with a HR of 1·061 (1·032-1·092) for exposure lower than 1·5× 10-5/m, and 1·081 (0·966-1·210) for exposure lower than 1·0× 10-5/m. INTERPRETATION: Long-term exposure to concentrations of PM2·5 and NO2 lower than current annual limit values was associated with non-accidental, cardiovascular, non-malignant respiratory, and lung cancer mortality in seven large European cohorts. Continuing research on the effects of low concentrations of air pollutants is expected to further inform the process of setting air quality standards in Europe and other global regions. FUNDING: Health Effects Institute.
Impact Factor
Scopus SNIP
Web of Science
Times Cited
Scopus
Cited By
Altmetric
Publication type
Article: Journal article
Document type
Scientific Article
Thesis type
Editors
Keywords
Keywords plus
Language
english
Publication Year
2022
Prepublished in Year
HGF-reported in Year
2022
ISSN (print) / ISBN
2542-5196
e-ISSN
2542-5196
ISBN
Book Volume Title
Conference Title
Conference Date
Conference Location
Proceedings Title
Quellenangaben
Volume: 6,
Issue: 1,
Pages: e9-e18
Article Number: ,
Supplement: ,
Series
Publisher
Elsevier
Publishing Place
Amsterdam
Day of Oral Examination
0000-00-00
Advisor
Referee
Examiner
Topic
University
University place
Faculty
Publication date
0000-00-00
Application date
0000-00-00
Patent owner
Further owners
Application country
Patent priority
Reviewing status
Peer reviewed
Institute(s)
Institute of Epidemiology (EPI)
POF-Topic(s)
30202 - Environmental Health
Research field(s)
Genetics and Epidemiology
PSP Element(s)
G-504000-010
G-504000-001
Grants
Health Effects Institute
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Norwegian Cause of Death Registry
Copyright
Erfassungsdatum
2022-02-07