Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2002 Mar 6;287(9):1132-41.
doi: 10.1001/jama.287.9.1132.

Lung cancer, cardiopulmonary mortality, and long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution

C Arden Pope 3rd  1 , Richard T Burnett, Michael J Thun, Eugenia E Calle, Daniel Krewski, Kazuhiko Ito, George D Thurston
Affiliations

Lung cancer, cardiopulmonary mortality, and long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution

C Arden Pope 3rd et al. JAMA. .

Abstract

Context: Associations have been found between day-to-day particulate air pollution and increased risk of various adverse health outcomes, including cardiopulmonary mortality. However, studies of health effects of long-term particulate air pollution have been less conclusive.

Objective: To assess the relationship between long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution and all-cause, lung cancer, and cardiopulmonary mortality.

Design, setting, and participants: Vital status and cause of death data were collected by the American Cancer Society as part of the Cancer Prevention II study, an ongoing prospective mortality study, which enrolled approximately 1.2 million adults in 1982. Participants completed a questionnaire detailing individual risk factor data (age, sex, race, weight, height, smoking history, education, marital status, diet, alcohol consumption, and occupational exposures). The risk factor data for approximately 500 000 adults were linked with air pollution data for metropolitan areas throughout the United States and combined with vital status and cause of death data through December 31, 1998.

Main outcome measure: All-cause, lung cancer, and cardiopulmonary mortality.

Results: Fine particulate and sulfur oxide--related pollution were associated with all-cause, lung cancer, and cardiopulmonary mortality. Each 10-microg/m(3) elevation in fine particulate air pollution was associated with approximately a 4%, 6%, and 8% increased risk of all-cause, cardiopulmonary, and lung cancer mortality, respectively. Measures of coarse particle fraction and total suspended particles were not consistently associated with mortality.

Conclusion: Long-term exposure to combustion-related fine particulate air pollution is an important environmental risk factor for cardiopulmonary and lung cancer mortality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean Fine Particles Measuring Less Than 2.5 μm in Diameter (PM2.5)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Nonparametric Smoothed Exposure Response Relationship
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mortality Relative Risk (RR) Ratio Associated With 10-μg/m3 Differences of PM2.5 Concentrations
Figure 4
Figure 4
Adjusted Mortality Relative Risk (RR) Ratio Associated With 10-μg/m3 Differences of PM2.5 Concentrations
Figure 5
Figure 5
Adjusted Mortality Relative Risk (RR) Ratio Evaluated at Subject-Weighted Mean Concentrations
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Firket J. The cause of the symptoms found in the Meuse Valley during the fog of December, 1930. Bull Acad R Med Belgium. 1931;11:683–741.
    1. Ciocco A, Thompson DJ. A follow-up of Donora ten years after: methodology and findings. Am J Public Health. 1961;51:155–164. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Logan WPD, Glasg MD. Mortality in London fog incident, 1952. Lancet. 1953;1:336–338. - PubMed
    1. Pope CA, III, Dockery DW. Epidemiology of particle effects. In: Holgate ST, Koren H, Maynard R, Samet J, editors. Air Pollution and Health. Academic Press; London, England: 1999. pp. 673–705.
    1. Kaiser J. Showdown over clean air science. Science. 1997;277:466–469. - PubMed

Publication types