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Providing Context for Ambient Particulate Matter and Estimates of Attributable Mortality
Author(s) -
McClellan Roger O.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/risa.12674
Subject(s) - national ambient air quality standards , particulates , context (archaeology) , environmental science , environmental health , criteria air contaminants , population , air pollution , air quality index , clean air act , population health , demography , air pollutants , toxicology , geography , meteorology , medicine , chemistry , biology , archaeology , sociology , organic chemistry
Four papers on fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) by Anenberg et al ., Fann et al ., Shin et al ., and Smith contribute to a growing body of literature on estimated epidemiological associations between ambient PM 2.5 concentrations and increases in health responses relative to baseline notes. This article provides context for the four articles, including a historical review of provisions of the U.S. Clean Air Act as amended in 1970, requiring the setting of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for criteria pollutants such as particulate matter (PM). The substantial improvements in both air quality for PM and population health as measured by decreased mortality rates are illustrated. The most recent revision of the NAAQS for PM 2.5 in 2013 by the Environmental Protection Agency distinguished between (1) uncertainties in characterizing PM 2.5 as having a causal association with various health endpoints, and as all‐cause mortality, and (2) uncertainties in concentration––excess health response relationships at low ambient PM 2.5 concentrations below the majority of annual concentrations studied in the United States in the past. In future reviews, and potential revisions, of the NAAQS for PM 2.5 , it will be even more important to distinguish between uncertainties in (1) characterizing the causal associations between ambient PM 2.5 concentrations and specific health outcomes, such as all‐source mortality, irrespective of the concentrations, (2) characterizing the potency of major constituents of PM 2.5 , and (3) uncertainties in the association between ambient PM 2.5 concentrations and specific health outcomes at various ambient PM 2.5 concentrations. The latter uncertainties are of special concern as ambient PM 2.5 concentrations and health morbidity and mortality rates approach background or baseline rates.