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Short-term exposure to sulfur dioxide and daily mortality in 17 Chinese cities: The China air pollution and health effects study (CAPES)

2012; Elsevier BV; Volume: 118; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.envres.2012.07.003

1096-0953

Renjie Chen, Wei Huang, Chit-Ming Wong, Zongshuang Wang, TQ Thach, Bingheng Chen, Haidong Kan,

Energy and Environment Impacts

Sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) is a major air pollutant and has significant impacts upon human health. Few multi-city studies in Asia have examined the acute health effects of SO 2 . As part of the China Air Pollution and Health Effects Study (CAPES), this study aimed at investigating the short-term association between SO 2 and daily mortality in 17 Chinese cities. We applied two-stage Bayesian hierarchical models to obtain city-specific and national average estimates for SO 2 . In each city, we used Poisson regression models incorporating natural spline smoothing functions to adjust for long-term and seasonal trend of mortality, as well as other time-varying covariates. We examined the associations by age, gender and education status. As a result, the combined analysis showed that an increase of 10 μg/m 3 of two-day moving averaged SO 2 was associated with 0.75% [95% posterior interval (PI), 0.47 to 1.02], 0.83% (0.95% PI, 0.47 to 1.19) and 1.25% (95% PI, 0.78 to 1.73) increase of total, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality, respectively. The effects of SO 2 appeared more evident among the elderly. These associations were generally independent of particles with aerodynamic diameter <10 μm (PM 10 ) but did not persist after adjustment for nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ). In conclusions, this largest epidemiologic study of air pollution in China to date suggests that short-term exposure to SO 2 is associated with increased mortality risk; however, these associations may be attributable to SO 2 serving as a surrogate of other substances. Further studies are needed to tackle the independent health effect of SO 2 . ► Few studies in Asia have examined the health effects of sulfur dioxide. ► Sulfur dioxide was associated with daily mortality in 17 Chinese cities. ► Age, but not gender or education, may modify the health effects of sulfur dioxide. ► Effects of sulfur dioxide were attenuated when adjusted for nitrogen dioxide .