Health Effects of Aerosols - Aerosols: Measurement, Dosimetry, and Health Effects - page 601

TABLE 23.12
Association between Ambient PM Aerosol and Onset of Asthma

Cohort Follow-Up Time Exposure Metric Findings Reference

Medical Research
Council, National
Survey of Health
and Development
1946 birth
cohort—national
sample

Thirty-six-year
multiple
contacts

Annual coal
consumption
between birth
and age 11

Self-reported wheeze and asthma at
age 36

[199]

Attributable risk a for “air pollution”
exposure between ages 0 and 2 = 6.7%
Attributable risk b for “air pollution”
exposure between ages 2 and
11 = 8.8%

Adventist Health
Study of Smog
Seventh Day
Adventists who
from various
locations in
California (90%
southern California)
enrolled in 1977

Ten years—2
contacts
(20-year
residential
histories)

Estimated
personal
exposure to
TSP, ozone, SO 4

Self-report of new physician diagnosis
of asthma

[203]

RR 2.9 (95% CI: 1.0-7.6) per
7 μg/m 3 —unit increase in mean annual
SO 4 exposure c
Effects not seen for new nonasthmatic
onset obstructive airways or chronic
bronchitis
Unable to separate SO 4 association from
that with O 3

Adventist Health
Study of Smog

Fifteen years—3
contacts

Estimated person
exposure to
SO 4 , PM 10

Self-report of new physician diagnosis
of asthma

[204]

Only association observed for 8 h
average ozone for females

Children's Health
Study Children up
to 16 from 12
southern California
communities

Up to 5
years—annual
contact

PM 10 , PM 2.5 ,
NO 2 , ozone;
classiied as
high/low O 3 and
PM based on
4-year means

New onset self-report of doctor
diagnosed asthma

[206]

Associations limited to children who
reported participation in three or
more outdoor sports
High-PM communities: d RR = 2.0
(95% CI: 1.1-3.6); low-PM
communities: 1.7 (0.9-3.2)
High-O 3 communities: RR = 3.3
(1.9-5.8); low-O 3 communities:
RR = 0.8 (0.4-1.6)

a Estimate adjusted for history of childhood lower respiratory illness, parental history of bronchitis, low socioeconomic
status. No data given related to maternal smoking during pregnancy or during postnatal and childhood years.
b Adjusted for same risk factors as for birth to 2 year exposure as well as cigarette smoking at age 36. Attributable risk for
smoking = 39.7% for comparison.
c Adjusted for years lived with a smoker, history of past lower respiratory illness before age 16, sex, age, and education.
d The same communities were ranked as high for PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and NO 2 . 4-year medians: low—PM 10 (μg/m 3 ) = 25.1,
PM 2.5 = 7.6; high—PM 10 = 39.7, PM 2.5 = 21.4. All models adjusted for SED, family history of allergy and/or asthma,
maternal smoking, body mass index.

for asthma [201,202]. An early report from the Adventist Health Study reported an association
between estimated personal exposure to sulfate over a 20-year period and the new report of a
doctor diagnosis of asthma that was speciic for asthma [203] (Table 23.12). However, a subse-
quent report, based on an additional 5 years of observation failed to conirm these indings [204].
In this latter study, new onset of asthma was associated only with mean ozone concentrations in
females. Earlier reports from this cohort noted that correlations between ozone and PM aerosol