How low can you go? Air pollution affects mortality at very low levels.
prospective_cohort · Level II
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36170354.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abo3381 and PMC identifier 9519036.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC.
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Abstract
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released new guidelines for outdoor fine particulate air pollution (PM<sub>2.5</sub>) recommending an annual average concentration of 5 μg/m<sup>3</sup>. Yet, our understanding of the concentration-response relationship between outdoor PM<sub>2.5</sub> and mortality in this range of near-background concentrations remains incomplete. To address this uncertainty, we conducted a population-based cohort study of 7.1 million adults in one of the world's lowest exposure environments. Our findings reveal a supralinear concentration-response relationship between outdoor PM<sub>2.5</sub> and mortality at very low (<5 μg/m<sup>3</sup>) concentrations. Our updated global concentration-response function incorporating this new information suggests an additional 1.5 million deaths globally attributable to outdoor PM<sub>2.5</sub> annually compared to previous estimates. The global health benefits of meeting the new WHO guideline for outdoor PM<sub>2.5</sub> are greater than previously assumed and indicate a need for continued reductions in outdoor air pollution around the world.