Vu et al.: The association between asthma emergency department visits and satellite-derived PM2.5 in Lima, Peru

Vu, B. N., Tapia, V., Ebelt, S., Gonzales, G. F., Liu, Y., Steenland, K. (2021). The association between asthma emergency department visits and satellite-derived PM2.5 in Lima, Peru. Environmental Research, 199, 111226. 

Elsevier: Link 

Lima, Peru is one of the most populated and polluted cities in South America. However, epidemiological studies pertaining to air pollution in Lima, Peru have been limited by the lack of quality and consistent historical ground measurements. With the recent development of exposure estimates created by Vu et al.’s satellite-driven machine learning model, we conduct a time-series study to investigate the association between PM2.5 and asthma emergency department (ED) visits between 2010 to 2016. Results from this study showed that from the 103,974 cases of asthma during the study period across Lima, there was a 3.7% increase in ED visits for every 6.02 µg/m3 (IQR, interquartile range) increase in PM2.5 for same day exposure. When stratified by age,  children ages 18 and younger saw a 4.5% increase in ED visits for every IQR increase in PM2.5 while adults ages 19-64 saw a 6.0% increase in ED visits for every IQR increase in PM2.5. The elderly population saw a 16.0% decrease in ED visits for every IQR increase in PM2.5; however, this age group had a small population size and the models may not be robust. Results from this study provides additional literature on the use of satellite-derived exposure estimates in epidemiologic studies conducted in low- and middle-income countries.

 

 

 

Liang et al.: The 17-y spatiotemporal trend of PM2.5 and its mortality burden in China

Estimation of the chronic health effects of PM2.5 exposure has been hindered by the lack of long-term PM2.5 data in China. To support this, high-performance machine-learning models were developed to estimate PM2.5 concentrations at 1-km resolution in China from 2000 to 2016, based on satellite data, meteorological conditions, land cover information, road networks, and air pollution emission indicators. By adopting imputation techniques, relatively unbiased spatiotemporally continuous exposure estimates were generated. Annual mortality burdens attributable to long-term PM2.5 exposure were estimated at the provincial scale, and the national total adult premature deaths were estimated at 30.8 million over the 17-y period in China.

This study was published in PNAS (link).

 

Bi et al.: Temporal changes in short-term associations between cardiorespiratory ED visits and PM2.5

Temporal changes in short-term associations between cardiorespiratory emergency department visits and PM2.5 in Los Angeles, 2005 to 2016

Emissions control programs targeting certain air pollution sources may alter PM2.5 composition as well as the risk of adverse health outcomes associated with PM2.5 (as a mixture). In this analysis, we examined temporal changes in the risk of emergency department (ED) visits for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and asthma associated with short-term exposure to PM2.5 in Los Angeles from 2005 to 2016, a period in which the implementation of emission control programs had led to changes in PM2.5 concentration and composition. We observed significant changes in the risk of CVD (with an increased risk) and asthma (with a decreased risk) ED visits when PM2.5 concentrations decreased over time. The observed changes in risk could be related to changes in PM2.5 composition (e.g., an increased fraction of organic carbon and a decreased fraction of sulfate) and other factors such as improvements in healthcare and differential exposure misclassification. 

Bi, J., D’Souza, R. R., Rich, D. Q., Hopke, P. K., Russell, A. G., Liu, Y., Chang, H. H., & Ebelt, S. (2020). Temporal changes in short-term associations between cardiorespiratory emergency department visits and PM2.5 in Los Angeles, 2005 to 2016. Environmental Research, 190, 109967. 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109967.

 

Stowell et al.: Health Effects Associated with Smoke-specific PM2.5 Exposure.

In this publication, we pioneer methods for separating smoke PM2.5 from ambient PM2.5 concentrations. We used case-crossover methods to look at the potential health effects from smoke PM2.5 exposure. Our approach differs from previous literature in that we isolate the PM2.5 from smoke alone. Historically, this has mostly been done using total PM2.5 concentrations with a fire indicator variable. Our results suggest that there could be a difference in toxicological effect from smoke PM2.5 exposure compared with ambient PM. Hence, while following similar trends seen in other publications, we obtained greater health effects for smoke PM2.5 concentrations. This work can be built upon to help understand the burden of smoke exposure in the context of climate change.

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