The temporal pattern of mortality responses to ambient ozone in the APHEA project

J Epidemiol Community Health. 2009 Dec;63(12):960-6. doi: 10.1136/jech.2008.084012. Epub 2009 Jul 30.

Abstract

Background: The temporal pattern of effects of summertime ozone (O(3)) in total, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality were investigated in 21 European cities participating in the APHEA-2 (Air Pollution and Health: a European Approach) project, which is fundamental in determining the importance of the effect in terms of life loss.

Methods: Data from each city were analysed separately using distributed lag models with up to 21 lags. City-specific air pollution estimates were regressed on city-specific covariates to obtain overall estimates and to explore sources of possible heterogeneity.

Results: Stronger effects on respiratory mortality that extend to a period of 2 weeks were found. A 10 microg/m(3) increase in O(3) was associated with a 0.36% (95% CI -0.21% to 0.94%) increase in respiratory deaths for lag 0 and with 3.35% (95% CI 1.90% to 4.83%) for lags 0-20. Significant adverse health effects were found of summer O(3) (June-August) on total and cardiovascular mortality that persist up to a week, but are counterbalanced by negative effects thereafter.

Conclusions: The results indicate that studies on acute health effects of O(3) using single-day exposures may have overestimated the effects on total and cardiovascular mortality, but underestimated the effects on respiratory mortality.

Publication types

  • Multicenter Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cardiovascular Diseases / mortality
  • Cause of Death
  • Environmental Exposure / adverse effects*
  • Environmental Exposure / analysis
  • Europe / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Mortality*
  • Oxidants, Photochemical / adverse effects*
  • Oxidants, Photochemical / analysis
  • Ozone / adverse effects*
  • Ozone / analysis
  • Respiratory Tract Diseases / mortality
  • Seasons*
  • Space-Time Clustering

Substances

  • Oxidants, Photochemical
  • Ozone