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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: The effect of primary organic particles on emergency hospital admissions among the elderly in 3 US cities.

Authors: Kioumourtzoglou, Marianthi-Anna; Zanobetti, Antonella; Schwartz, Joel D; Coull, Brent A; Dominici, Francesca; Suh, Helen H

Published In Environ Health, (2013 Aug 27)

Abstract: Fine particle (PM2.5) pollution related to combustion sources has been linked to a variety of adverse health outcomes. Although poorly understood, it is possible that organic carbon (OC) species, particularly those from combustion-related sources, may be partially responsible for the observed toxicity of PM2.5. The toxicity of the OC species may be related to their chemical structures; however, few studies have examined the association of OC species with health impacts.We categorized 58 primary organic compounds by their chemical properties into 5 groups: n-alkanes, hopanes, cyclohexanes, PAHs and isoalkanes. We examined their impacts on the rate of daily emergency hospital admissions among Medicare recipients in Atlanta, GA and Birmingham, AL (2006-2009), and Dallas, TX (2006-2007). We analyzed data in two stages; we applied a case-crossover analysis to simultaneously estimate effects of individual OC species on cause-specific hospital admissions. In the second stage we estimated the OC chemical group-specific effects, using a multivariate weighted regression.Exposures to cyclohexanes of six days and longer were significantly and consistently associated with increased rate of hospital admissions for CVD (3.40%, 95%CI = (0.64, 6.24%) for 7-d exposure). Similar increases were found for hospitalizations for ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction. For respiratory related hospital admissions, associations with OC groups were less consistent, although exposure to iso-/anteiso-alkanes was associated with increased respiratory-related hospitalizations.Results suggest that week-long exposures to traffic-related, primary organic species are associated with increased rate of total and cause-specific CVD emergency hospital admissions. Associations were significant for cyclohexanes, but not hopanes, suggesting that chemical properties likely play an important role in primary OC toxicity.

PubMed ID: 23981468 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: No MeSH terms associated with this publication

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