Premium
Cardiovascular benefits of reducing personal exposure to traffic‐related noise and particulate air pollution: A randomized crossover study in the Beijing subway system
Author(s) -
Yang X.,
Jia X.,
Dong W.,
Wu S.,
Miller M. R.,
Hu D.,
Li H.,
Pan L.,
Deng F.,
Guo X.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
indoor air
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.387
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1600-0668
pISSN - 0905-6947
DOI - 10.1111/ina.12485
Subject(s) - beijing , public health , environmental medicine , environmental health , occupational safety and health , medicine , gerontology , political science , china , nursing , law , pathology
To assess the cardiovascular benefits of protecting against particulate air pollution and noise, we conducted a randomized crossover study with 40 young healthy college students from March to May 2017 in the underground subway, Beijing. Participants each received 4 treatments (no intervention phase [ NIP ], respirator intervention phase [ RIP ], headphone intervention phase [ HIP ], respirator plus headphone intervention phase [ RHIP ]) in a randomized order during 4 different study periods with 2‐week washout intervals. We measured personal exposure to particulate matter ( PM ), noise and electrocardiogram ( ECG ) parameters (heart rate variability ( HRV ), heart rate ( HR ) and ST segment changes), ambulatory blood pressure ( BP ) continuously for 4 hours to investigate the cardiovascular effects. Compared with NIP , most of the HRV parameters increased, especially high frequency ( HF ) [21.1% (95% CI : 15.7%, 26.9%), 18.2% (95% CI : 12.8%, 23.9%), and 35.5% (95% CI : 29.3%, 42.0%) in RIP , HIP , and RHIP , respectively], whereas ST segment elevation and HR decreased for all 3 modes of interventions. However, no significant differences were observed in BP among the 4 treatments. In summary, short‐term wearing of a respirator and/or headphone may be an effective way to minimize cardiovascular risk induced by air pollution in the subway by improving autonomic nervous function.