Disparities in air pollution attributable mortality in the US population by race/ethnicity and sociodemographic factors.

Abstract

There are large differences in premature mortality in the USA by race/ethnicity, education, rurality and social vulnerability index groups. Using existing concentration-response functions, published particulate matter (PM_2.5) air pollution estimates, population estimates at the census tract level and county-level mortality data from the US National Vital Statistics System, we estimated the degree to which these mortality discrepancies can be attributed to differences in exposure and susceptibility to PM_2.5. We show that differences in PM_2.5-attributable mortality were consistently more pronounced by race/ethnicity than by education, rurality or social vulnerability index, with the Black American population having the highest proportion of deaths attributable to PM_2.5 in all years from 1990 to 2016. Our model estimates that over half of the difference in age-adjusted all-cause mortality between the Black American and non-Hispanic white population was attributable to PM_2.5 in the years 2000 to 2011. This difference decreased only marginally between 2000 and 2015, from 53.4% (95% confidence interval 51.2-55.9%) to 49.9% (95% confidence interval 47.8-52.2%), respectively. Our findings underscore the need for targeted air quality interventions to address environmental health disparities.