Association of Short-term Exposure to Air Pollution With Mortality in Older Adults

JAMA | December 26, 2017
What is the association between short-term exposure to air pollution below current air quality standards and all-cause mortality?

In a case-crossover study of more than 22 million deaths, each 10-μg/m3 daily increase in fine particulate matter and 10–parts-per-billion daily increase in warm-season ozone exposures were associated with a statistically significant increase of 1.42 and 0.66 deaths per 1 million persons at risk per day, respectively.

Day-to-day changes in fine particulate matter and ozone exposures were significantly associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality at levels below current air quality standards, suggesting that those standards may need to be reevaluated.

Read abstract here