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Martenies SE, Wilkins D, Batterman SA. Health impact metrics for air pollution management strategies. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2015; 85:84-95. [PMID: 26372694 PMCID: PMC4648637 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2015.08.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2015] [Revised: 08/11/2015] [Accepted: 08/24/2015] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Health impact assessments (HIAs) inform policy and decision making by providing information regarding future health concerns, and quantitative HIAs now are being used for local and urban-scale projects. HIA results can be expressed using a variety of metrics that differ in meaningful ways, and guidance is lacking with respect to best practices for the development and use of HIA metrics. This study reviews HIA metrics pertaining to air quality management and presents evaluative criteria for their selection and use. These are illustrated in a case study where PM2.5 concentrations are lowered from 10 to 8μg/m(3) in an urban area of 1.8 million people. Health impact functions are used to estimate the number of premature deaths, unscheduled hospitalizations and other morbidity outcomes. The most common metric in recent quantitative HIAs has been the number of cases of adverse outcomes avoided. Other metrics include time-based measures, e.g., disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), monetized impacts, functional-unit based measures, e.g., benefits per ton of emissions reduced, and other economic indicators, e.g., cost-benefit ratios. These metrics are evaluated by considering their comprehensiveness, the spatial and temporal resolution of the analysis, how equity considerations are facilitated, and the analysis and presentation of uncertainty. In the case study, the greatest number of avoided cases occurs for low severity morbidity outcomes, e.g., asthma exacerbations (n=28,000) and minor-restricted activity days (n=37,000); while DALYs and monetized impacts are driven by the severity, duration and value assigned to a relatively low number of premature deaths (n=190 to 230 per year). The selection of appropriate metrics depends on the problem context and boundaries, the severity of impacts, and community values regarding health. The number of avoided cases provides an estimate of the number of people affected, and monetized impacts facilitate additional economic analyses useful to policy analysis. DALYs are commonly used as an aggregate measure of health impacts and can be used to compare impacts across studies. Benefits per ton metrics may be appropriate when changes in emissions rates can be estimated. To address community concerns and HIA objectives, a combination of metrics is suggested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sheena E Martenies
- Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Donele Wilkins
- Green Door Initiative, 5555 Conner Street Suite 1017A, Detroit, MI 48213, USA
| | - Stuart A Batterman
- Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
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Hu J, Ying Q, Wang Y, Zhang H. Characterizing multi-pollutant air pollution in China: Comparison of three air quality indices. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2015. [PMID: 26197060 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2015.06.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Multi-pollutant air pollution (i.e., several pollutants reaching very high concentrations simultaneously) frequently occurs in many regions across China. Air quality index (AQI) is used worldwide to inform the public about levels of air pollution and associated health risks. The current AQI approach used in China is based on the maximum value of individual pollutants, and does not consider the combined health effects of exposure to multiple pollutants. In this study, two novel alternative indices--aggregate air quality index (AAQI) and health-risk based air quality index (HAQI)--were calculated based on data collected in six megacities of China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shjiazhuang, Xi'an, and Wuhan) during 2013 to 2014. Both AAQI and HAQI take into account the combined health effects of various pollutants, and the HAQI considers the exposure (or concentration)-response relationships of pollutants. AAQI and HAQI were compared to AQI to examine the effectiveness of the current AQI in characterizing multi-pollutant air pollution in China. The AAQI and HAQI values are higher than the AQI on days when two or more pollutants simultaneously exceed the Chinese Ambient Air Quality Standards (CAAQS) 24-hour Grade II standards. The results of the comparison of the classification of risk categories based on the three indices indicate that the current AQI approach underestimates the severity of health risk associated with exposure to multi-pollutant air pollution. For the AQI-based risk category of 'unhealthy', 96% and 80% of the days would be 'very unhealthy' or 'hazardous' if based on AAQI and HAQI, respectively; and for the AQI-based risk category of 'very unhealthy', 67% and 75% of the days would be 'hazardous' if based on AAQI and HAQI, respectively. The results suggest that the general public, especially sensitive population groups such as children and the elderly, should take more stringent actions than those currently suggested based on the AQI approach during high air pollution events. Sensitivity studies were conducted to examine the assumptions used in the AAQI and HAQI approaches. Results show that AAQI is sensitive to the choice of pollutant irrelevant constant. HAQI is sensitive to the choice of both threshold values and pollutants included in total risk calculation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianlin Hu
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, Jiangsu Engineering Technology Research Center of Environmental Cleaning Materials, Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, 219 Ningliu Road, Nanjing 210044, China
| | - Qi Ying
- Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | - Yungang Wang
- Environmental Resources Management (ERM), Walnut Creek, CA 94597, USA
| | - Hongliang Zhang
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
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Habilomatis G, Chaloulakou A. A CFD modeling study in an urban street canyon for ultrafine particles and population exposure: The intake fraction approach. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2015; 530-531:227-232. [PMID: 26047855 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.03.089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2014] [Revised: 02/26/2015] [Accepted: 03/21/2015] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Air quality in street canyons is of major importance, since the highest pollution levels are often encountered in these microenvironments. The canyon effect (reduced natural ventilation) makes them "hot spots" for particulate pollution contributing to adverse health effects for the exposed population. In this study we tried to characterize the influence of UFP (ultrafine particle) emissions from traffic on population exposure in an urban street canyon, by applying the intake fraction (iF) approach. One month long measurements of UFP levels have been monitored and used for the need of this study. We applied a three dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model based on real measurements for the simulation of UFP levels. We used infiltration factors, evaluated on a daily basis for the under study area, to estimate the indoor UFP levels. As a result the intake fraction for the pedestrians, residents and office workers is in the range of (1E-5)-(1E-4). The street canyon is mostly residential justifying partially the higher value of intake fraction for residents (1E-4). The above iF value is on the same order of magnitude with the corresponding one evaluated in a relative street canyon study. The total iF value in this microenvironment is one order of magnitude higher than ours, explained partially by the different use and activities. Two specific applications of iF to assess prioritization among emission sources and environmental justice issues are also examined. We ran a scenario with diesel and gasoline cars and diesel fueled vehicle seems to be a target source to improve overall iF. Our application focus on a small residential area, typical of urban central Athens, in order to evaluate high resolution iF. The significance of source-exposure relationship study in a micro scale is emphasized by recent research.
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Affiliation(s)
- George Habilomatis
- School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou str., 15773 Zografou, Athens, Greece
| | - Archontoula Chaloulakou
- School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou str., 15773 Zografou, Athens, Greece.
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Pearce JL, Waller LA, Mulholland JA, Sarnat SE, Strickland MJ, Chang HH, Tolbert PE. Exploring associations between multipollutant day types and asthma morbidity: epidemiologic applications of self-organizing map ambient air quality classifications. Environ Health 2015; 14:55. [PMID: 26099363 PMCID: PMC4477305 DOI: 10.1186/s12940-015-0041-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2015] [Accepted: 06/01/2015] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent interest in the health effects of air pollution focuses on identifying combinations of multiple pollutants that may be associated with adverse health risks. OBJECTIVE Present a methodology allowing health investigators to explore associations between categories of ambient air quality days (i.e., multipollutant day types) and adverse health. METHODS First, we applied a self-organizing map (SOM) to daily air quality data for 10 pollutants collected between January 1999 and December 2008 at a central monitoring location in Atlanta, Georgia to define a collection of multipollutant day types. Next, we conducted an epidemiologic analysis using our categories as a multipollutant metric of ambient air quality and daily counts of emergency department (ED) visits for asthma or wheeze among children aged 5 to 17 as the health endpoint. We estimated rate ratios (RR) for the association of multipollutant day types and pediatric asthma ED visits using a Poisson generalized linear model controlling for long-term, seasonal, and weekday trends and weather. RESULTS Using a low pollution day type as the reference level, we found significant associations of increased asthma morbidity in three of nine categories suggesting adverse effects when combinations of primary (CO, NO2, NOX, EC, and OC) and/or secondary (O3, NH4, SO4) pollutants exhibited elevated concentrations (typically, occurring on dry days with low wind speed). On days with only NO3 elevated (which tended to be relatively cool) and on days when only SO2 was elevated (which likely reflected plume touchdowns from coal combustion point sources), estimated associations were modestly positive but confidence intervals included the null. CONCLUSIONS We found that ED visits for pediatric asthma in Atlanta were more strongly associated with certain day types defined by multipollutant characteristics than days with low pollution levels; however, findings did not suggest that any specific combinations were more harmful than others. Relative to other health endpoints, asthma exacerbation may be driven more by total ambient pollutant exposure than by composition.
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Affiliation(s)
- John L Pearce
- Department of Public Health Sciences, College of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Cannon Street, Charleston, SC, 29422, United States.
| | - Lance A Waller
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States.
| | - James A Mulholland
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States.
| | - Stefanie E Sarnat
- Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States.
| | - Matthew J Strickland
- Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States.
| | - Howard H Chang
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States.
| | - Paige E Tolbert
- Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States.
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Pirani M, Best N, Blangiardo M, Liverani S, Atkinson RW, Fuller GW. Analysing the health effects of simultaneous exposure to physical and chemical properties of airborne particles. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2015; 79:56-64. [PMID: 25795926 PMCID: PMC4396698 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2015.02.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2014] [Revised: 02/12/2015] [Accepted: 02/19/2015] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Airborne particles are a complex mix of organic and inorganic compounds, with a range of physical and chemical properties. Estimation of how simultaneous exposure to air particles affects the risk of adverse health response represents a challenge for scientific research and air quality management. In this paper, we present a Bayesian approach that can tackle this problem within the framework of time series analysis. METHODS We used Dirichlet process mixture models to cluster time points with similar multipollutant and response profiles, while adjusting for seasonal cycles, trends and temporal components. Inference was carried out via Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods. We illustrated our approach using daily data of a range of particle metrics and respiratory mortality for London (UK) 2002-2005. To better quantify the average health impact of these particles, we measured the same set of metrics in 2012, and we computed and compared the posterior predictive distributions of mortality under the exposure scenario in 2012 vs 2005. RESULTS The model resulted in a partition of the days into three clusters. We found a relative risk of 1.02 (95% credible intervals (CI): 1.00, 1.04) for respiratory mortality associated with days characterised by high posterior estimates of non-primary particles, especially nitrate and sulphate. We found a consistent reduction in the airborne particles in 2012 vs 2005 and the analysis of the posterior predictive distributions of respiratory mortality suggested an average annual decrease of -3.5% (95% CI: -0.12%, -5.74%). CONCLUSIONS We proposed an effective approach that enabled the better understanding of hidden structures in multipollutant health effects within time series analysis. It allowed the identification of exposure metrics associated with respiratory mortality and provided a tool to assess the changes in health effects from various policies to control the ambient particle matter mixtures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monica Pirani
- MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, King's College London, Division of Analytical and Environmental Science, Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, SE1 9NH, London, UK.
| | - Nicky Best
- MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 526 Norfolk Place, W2 1PG London, UK.
| | - Marta Blangiardo
- MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 526 Norfolk Place, W2 1PG London, UK.
| | - Silvia Liverani
- Brunel University, Department of Mathematics, UB8 3PH Uxbridge, London, UK; MRC Biostatistics Unit, Institute of Public Health, Forvie site, Robinson Way, CB2 0SR Cambridge, UK; Imperial College London, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 526 Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG London, UK.
| | - Richard W Atkinson
- MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, St. George's University of London, Population Health Research Institute, Cranmer Terrace, SW17 0RE London, UK.
| | - Gary W Fuller
- MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, King's College London, Division of Analytical and Environmental Science, Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, SE1 9NH, London, UK.
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Adams K, Greenbaum DS, Shaikh R, van Erp AM, Russell AG. Particulate matter components, sources, and health: Systematic approaches to testing effects. JOURNAL OF THE AIR & WASTE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (1995) 2015; 65:544-58. [PMID: 25947313 DOI: 10.1080/10962247.2014.1001884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 136] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
UNLABELLED Exposure to particulate matter (PM) is associated with adverse health outcomes. There has long been a question as to whether some components of the PM mixture are of greater public health concern than others so that the sources that emit the more toxic components could be controlled. In this paper, we describe the National Particle Component Toxicity (NPACT) initiative, a comprehensive research program that combined epidemiologic and toxicologic approaches to evaluate this critical question, partly relying on information from a national network of air quality monitors that provided data on speciated PM2.5 (PM with an aerodynamic diameter<2.5 μm) starting in 2000. We also consider the results of the NPACT program in the context of selected research on PM components and health in order to assess the current state of the field. Overall, the ambitious NPACT research program found associations of secondary sulfate and, to a somewhat lesser extent, traffic sources with health effects. Although this and other research has linked a variety of health effects to multiple groups of PM components and sources of PM, the collective evidence has not yet isolated factors or sources that would be closely and unequivocally more strongly related to specific health outcomes. If greater success is to be achieved in isolating the effects of pollutants from mobile and other major sources, either as individual components or as a mixture, more advanced approaches and additional measurements will be needed so that exposure at the individual or population level can be assessed more accurately. Enhanced understanding of exposure and health effects is needed before it can be concluded that regulations targeting specific sources or components of PM2.5 will protect public health more effectively than continuing to follow the current practices of targeting PM2.5 mass as a whole. IMPLICATIONS This paper describes a comprehensive epidemiologic and toxicologic research program to evaluate whether some components and sources of PM may be more toxic than others. This question is important for regulatory agencies in setting air quality standards to protect people's health. The results show that PM from coal and oil combustion and from traffic sources was associated with adverse health outcomes, but other components and sources could not definitively be ruled out. Thus, given current knowledge, the current practice of setting air quality standards for PM mass as a whole likely remains an effective approach to protecting public health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kate Adams
- a Health Effects Institute , Boston , MA , USA
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Comparing multipollutant emissions-based mobile source indicators to other single pollutant and multipollutant indicators in different urban areas. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2014; 11:11727-52. [PMID: 25405595 PMCID: PMC4245641 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph111111727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2014] [Revised: 11/05/2014] [Accepted: 11/06/2014] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
A variety of single pollutant and multipollutant metrics can be used to represent exposure to traffic pollutant mixtures and evaluate their health effects. Integrated mobile source indicators (IMSIs) that combine air quality concentration and emissions data have recently been developed and evaluated using data from Atlanta, Georgia. IMSIs were found to track trends in traffic-related pollutants and have similar or stronger associations with health outcomes. In the current work, we apply IMSIs for gasoline, diesel and total (gasoline + diesel) vehicles to two other cities (Denver, Colorado and Houston, Texas) with different emissions profiles as well as to a different dataset from Atlanta. We compare spatial and temporal variability of IMSIs to single-pollutant indicators (carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and elemental carbon (EC)) and multipollutant source apportionment factors produced by Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF). Across cities, PMF-derived and IMSI gasoline metrics were most strongly correlated with CO (r = 0.31–0.98), while multipollutant diesel metrics were most strongly correlated with EC (r = 0.80–0.98). NOx correlations with PMF factors varied across cities (r = 0.29–0.67), while correlations with IMSIs were relatively consistent (r = 0.61–0.94). In general, single-pollutant metrics were more correlated with IMSIs (r = 0.58–0.98) than with PMF-derived factors (r = 0.07–0.99). A spatial analysis indicated that IMSIs were more strongly correlated (r > 0.7) between two sites in each city than single pollutant and PMF factors. These findings provide confidence that IMSIs provide a transferable, simple approach to estimate mobile source air pollution in cities with differing topography and source profiles using readily available data.
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Pearce JL, Waller LA, Chang HH, Klein M, Mulholland JA, Sarnat JA, Sarnat SE, Strickland MJ, Tolbert PE. Using self-organizing maps to develop ambient air quality classifications: a time series example. Environ Health 2014; 13:56. [PMID: 24990361 PMCID: PMC4098670 DOI: 10.1186/1476-069x-13-56] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2014] [Accepted: 06/23/2014] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Development of exposure metrics that capture features of the multipollutant environment are needed to investigate health effects of pollutant mixtures. This is a complex problem that requires development of new methodologies. OBJECTIVE Present a self-organizing map (SOM) framework for creating ambient air quality classifications that group days with similar multipollutant profiles. METHODS Eight years of day-level data from Atlanta, GA, for ten ambient air pollutants collected at a central monitor location were classified using SOM into a set of day types based on their day-level multipollutant profiles. We present strategies for using SOM to develop a multipollutant metric of air quality and compare results with more traditional techniques. RESULTS Our analysis found that 16 types of days reasonably describe the day-level multipollutant combinations that appear most frequently in our data. Multipollutant day types ranged from conditions when all pollutants measured low to days exhibiting relatively high concentrations for either primary or secondary pollutants or both. The temporal nature of class assignments indicated substantial heterogeneity in day type frequency distributions (~1%-14%), relatively short-term durations (<2 day persistence), and long-term and seasonal trends. Meteorological summaries revealed strong day type weather dependencies and pollutant concentration summaries provided interesting scenarios for further investigation. Comparison with traditional methods found SOM produced similar classifications with added insight regarding between-class relationships. CONCLUSION We find SOM to be an attractive framework for developing ambient air quality classification because the approach eases interpretation of results by allowing users to visualize classifications on an organized map. The presented approach provides an appealing tool for developing multipollutant metrics of air quality that can be used to support multipollutant health studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- John L Pearce
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Lance A Waller
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Howard H Chang
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Mitch Klein
- Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - James A Mulholland
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Jeremy A Sarnat
- Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Stefanie E Sarnat
- Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Matthew J Strickland
- Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Paige E Tolbert
- Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
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