Dataset Information

Framework for assessing causality of air pollution-related health effects for reviews of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

ABSTRACT: To inform regulatory decisions on the risk due to exposure to ambient air pollution, consistent and transparent communication of the scientific evidence is essential. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) develops the Integrated Science Assessment (ISA), which contains evaluations of the policy-relevant science on the effects of criteria air pollutants and conveys critical science judgments to inform decisions on the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. This article discusses the approach and causal framework used in the ISAs to evaluate and integrate various lines of scientific evidence and draw conclusions about the causal nature of air pollution-induced health effects. The framework has been applied to diverse pollutants and cancer and noncancer effects. To demonstrate its flexibility, we provide examples of causality judgments on relationships between health effects and pollutant exposures, drawing from recent ISAs for ozone, lead, carbon monoxide, and oxides of nitrogen. U.S. EPA's causal framework has increased transparency by establishing a structured process for evaluating and integrating various lines of evidence and uniform approach for determining causality. The framework brings consistency and specificity to the conclusions in the ISA, and the flexibility of the framework makes it relevant for evaluations of evidence across media and health effects.

SUBMITTER: Owens EO

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6613194 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Framework for assessing causality of air pollution-related health effects for reviews of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

Owens Elizabeth Oesterling EO Patel Molini M MM Kirrane Ellen E Long Thomas C TC Brown James J Cote Ila I Ross Mary A MA Dutton Steven J SJ

Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP 20170517

To inform regulatory decisions on the risk due to exposure to ambient air pollution, consistent and transparent communication of the scientific evidence is essential. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) develops the Integrated Science Assessment (ISA), which contains evaluations of the policy-relevant science on the effects of criteria air pollutants and conveys critical science judgments to inform decisions on the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. This article dis ...[more]

PMID: 28526659

Similar Datasets

Project description:Objectives: National ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) are critical tools for controlling air pollution and protecting public health. We designed this study to 1) gather the NAAQS for six classical air pollutants: PM2.5, PM10, O3, NO2, SO2, and CO in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) countries, 2) compare those with the updated World Health Organizations Air Quality Guidelines (WHO AQGs 2021), 3) estimate the potential health benefits of achieving annual PM2.5 NAAQS and WHO AQGs per country, and 4) gather the information on air quality policies and action plans in the EMR countries. Methods: To gather information on the NAAQS, we searched several bibliographic databases, hand-searched the relevant papers and reports, and analysed unpublished data on NAAQS in the EMR countries reported from these countries to the WHO/Regional office of the Eastern Mediterranean/Climate Change, Health and Environment Unit (WHO/EMR/CHE). To estimate the potential health benefits of reaching the NAAQS and AQG levels for PM2.5, we used the average of ambient PM2.5 exposures in the 22 EMR countries in 2019 from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) dataset and AirQ+ software. Results: Almost all of the EMR countries have national ambient air quality standards for the critical air pollutants except Djibouti, Somalia, and Yemen. However, the current standards for PM2.5 are up to 10 times higher than the current health-based WHO AQGs. The standards for other considered pollutants exceed AQGs as well. We estimated that the reduction of annual mean PM2.5 exposure level to the AQG level (5 μg m-3) would be associated with a decrease of all natural-cause mortality in adults (age 30+) by 16.9%-42.1% in various EMR countries. All countries would even benefit from the achievement of the Interim Target-2 (25 μg m-3) for annual mean PM2.5: it would reduce all-cause mortality by 3%-37.5%. Less than half of the countries in the Region reported having policies relevant to air quality management, in particular addressing pollution related to sand and desert storms (SDS) such as enhancing the implementation of sustainable land management practices, taking measures to prevent and control the main factors of SDS, and developing early warning systems as tools to combat SDS. Few countries conduct studies on the health effects of air pollution or on a contribution of SDS to pollution levels. Information from air quality monitoring is available for 13 out of the 22 EMR countries. Conclusion: Improvement of air quality management, including international collaboration and prioritization of SDS, supported by an update (or establishment) of NAAQSs and enhanced air quality monitoring are essential elements for reduction of air pollution and its health effects in the EMR.

Project description:The available evidence on the effects of ambient air pollution on cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) has increased substantially. In this umbrella review, we summarized the current epidemiological evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses linking ambient air pollution and CVDs, with a focus on geographical differences and vulnerable subpopulations. We performed a search strategy through multiple databases including articles between 2010 and 31 January 2021. We performed a quality assessment and evaluated the strength of evidence. Of the 56 included reviews, the most studied outcomes were stroke (22 reviews), all-cause CVD mortality, and morbidity (19). The strongest evidence was found between higher short- and long-term ambient air pollution exposure and all-cause CVD mortality and morbidity, stroke, blood pressure, and ischemic heart diseases (IHD). Short-term exposures to particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM2.5 ), <10 μm (PM10 ), and nitrogen oxides (NOx ) were consistently associated with increased risks of hypertension and triggering of myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke (fatal and nonfatal). Long-term exposures of PM2.5 were largely associated with increased risk of atherosclerosis, incident MI, hypertension, and incident stroke and stroke mortality. Few reviews evaluated other CVD outcomes including arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation, or heart failure but they generally reported positive statistical associations. Stronger associations were found in Asian countries and vulnerable subpopulations, especially among the elderly, cardiac patients, and people with higher weight status. Consistent with experimental data, this comprehensive umbrella review found strong evidence that higher levels of ambient air pollution increase the risk of CVDs, especially all-cause CVD mortality, stroke, and IHD. These results emphasize the importance of reducing the alarming levels of air pollution across the globe, especially in Asia, and among vulnerable subpopulations.

Dataset Information

Framework for assessing causality of air pollution-related health effects for reviews of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

Publications

Framework for assessing causality of air pollution-related health effects for reviews of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets