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Ground-Level Ozone Linked
to Increased Mortality
Nov 17, 2004
Journal of the American
Medical Association
This new paper just published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association will be getting a lot of press in the next few days.
It is the largest study to date linking ozone and mortality.
On the JAMA site it shows a map of the 95 metro areas
where they gathered data. KC was one of the sites, so
it has a direct link to air quality and mortality rates
in Kansas City.
There's a site listed in the text below where you can see the data
and statistical models used in the study.
Vince
Ground-Level Ozone Linked
to Increased Mortality
17 Nov 2004
Study Examined Ozone Levels in 95 US Cities - Changes in ground-level
ozone were
significantly associated with an increase in deaths in many U.S. cities,
according
to a nationwide study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School
of Public Health and the Yale University School of Forestry and
Environmental
Studies. The risk of death was similar for adults of all ages and slightly
higher
for people with respiratory or cardiovascular problems. The increase in
deaths
occurred at ozone levels below the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
clean air
standards. The study appears in the November 17, 2004, edition of the
Journal of the
American Medical Association (JAMA.)
Ground-level ozone is a pollutant in the Earth's lower atmosphere that is
formed
when emissions from cars, power plants and other sources react chemically
to
sunlight. Stratospheric ozone, which is higher in the atmosphere, is the
"ozone layer" that protects the Earth from ultraviolet radiation.
"This is one of the largest ozone pollution studies ever conducted," said
lead
author Michelle Bell, PhD, who was previously with the Bloomberg School of
Public
Health and is now an assistant professor at the Yale School of Forestry
and
Environmental Studies.
The ozone study was part of the ongoing National Morbidity Mortality and
Air
Pollution Study (NMMAPS) at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, which
routinely
assesses health effects of air pollution on a national scale. To determine
the
association between ozone and mortality, the researchers looked at the
total number
of non-injury-related deaths and cardiovascular and respiratory mortality
in the 95
largest U.S. communities from 1987 to 2000. Air pollution data were
supplied by the
EPA. Mortality data were supplied by the National Center of Health
Statistics. The
researchers accounted for variables such as weather, particulate matter
pollution
and seasonality, which could impact mortality rates.
The researchers found that an increase of 10 parts per billion (ppb) in
weekly ozone
levels was associated with a 0.52 percent daily increase in deaths the
following
week. The rate of daily cardiovascular and respiratory deaths increased
0.64 percent
with each 10 ppb increase of weekly ozone. The average daily ozone level
for the
cities surveyed was 26 ppb. The EPA's maximum for ground-level ozone over
an 8-hour
period is 80 ppb. The researchers calculated that a 10 ppb reduction in
daily ozone,
which is roughly 35 percent of the average daily ozone level, could save
nearly
4,000 lives throughout the 95 urban communities included in the study.
"Our study shows that ground-level ozone is a national problem, which is
not limited
to a small number of cities or one region. Everyone needs to be aware of
the
potential health risks of ozone pollution," said Francesca Dominici, PhD,
senior
author of the study and associate professor in the Department of
Biostatistics at
the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The data and statistical models used to complete the study are available
on the
Health and Air Pollution Surveillance System website at
http://www.ihapss.jhsph.edu.
The site is maintained by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health and
sponsored by the Health Effects Institute.
"Ozone and Short-Term Mortality in 95 U.S. Urban Communities, 1987-2000" was written
by Michelle L. Bell, PhD; Aidan McDermott, PhD; Scott L. Zeger, PhD;
Jonathan M.
Samet, MD; and Francesca Dominici, PhD.
Funding was provided by grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, the
National Institutes for Environmental Health Sciences, NIEHS Center for
Urban
Environmental Health and the Health Effects Institute.
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