Long-term air pollution exposure and cardio- respiratory mortality: a review

• Published in: Environmental health Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 43
• Main Authors: Hoek, Gerard, Krishnan, Ranjini M, Beelen, Rob, Peters, Annette, Ostro, Bart, Brunekreef, Bert, Kaufman, Joel D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 28.05.2013; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - analysis; Air Pollutants - toxicity; Air pollution; Air Pollution - adverse effects; Air Pollution - analysis; Cardiovascular diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases - etiology; Cardiovascular Diseases - mortality; Combustion; Education; Emissions; Environmental health; Epidemiology; Exposure; Health aspects; Health risks; Heart diseases; Heterogeneity; Humans; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Mortality; Nitrogen dioxide; Particle Size; Particulate matter; Particulate Matter - analysis; Particulate Matter - toxicity; Patient outcomes; Population characteristics; Respiratory diseases; Respiratory tract diseases; Respiratory Tract Diseases - etiology; Respiratory Tract Diseases - mortality; Review; Risk factors; Studies; United States; United States; Asia
• ISSN: 1476-069X; 1476-069X
• DOI: 10.1186/1476-069X-12-43

Current day concentrations of ambient air pollution have been associated with a range of adverse health effects, particularly mortality and morbidity due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. In this review, we summarize the evidence from epidemiological studies on long-term exposure to fine and coarse particles, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and elemental carbon on mortality from all-causes, cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease. We also summarize the findings on potentially susceptible subgroups across studies. We identified studies through a search in the databases Medline and Scopus and previous reviews until January 2013 and performed a meta-analysis if more than five studies were available for the same exposure metric.