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Air pollution and human health: a review and reanalysis.

1980; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Volume: 34; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1289/ehp.8034165

1552-9924

L. A. Thibodeau, Robert B. Reed, Y M Bishop, Lisa A. Kammerman,

Energy, Environment, Economic Growth

Research ArticleOpen AccessAir pollution and human health: a review and reanalysis. L A Thibodeau, R B Reed, Y M Bishop, and L A Kammerman L A Thibodeau , R B Reed , Y M Bishop , and L A Kammerman Published:1 February 1980https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.8034165Cited by:14AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail AbstractSince 1970, Lave and Seskin have published a series of articles dealing with the question, "Does air pollution shorten lives?" Their recent book reports revised and extended analyses of their previous studies emphasizing policy implications. We have undertaken a review of Lave and Seskin's book to evaluate the methodology used and hence gain some insight into the strength of the conclusions reached. This review concentrates on methodology and its application to establishing and quantifying the association between air quality and health. Beyond simply reviewing the analyses reported in Lave and Seskin's book, we have duplicated and expanded two of the reported analyses. Our detailed reanalysis is presented both to verify reported results, and to illustrate the difficulties encountered in such an analysis. Our overall conclusion is that Lave and Seskin have done a thorouth job of reporting and interpreting the various analyses that they performed. Lave and Seskin have made a pioneering effort in showing an association between mortality rates and air pollution. We do not disagree with the conclusion of the existence of an association but have some reservations about their methods of estimating its magnitude. We were particularly concerned that Lave and Seskin did not fully investigate how well their models fit these data. Our reanalysis results in estimated effects which differ considerably from the values reported by Lave and Seskin. Thus, we conclude that the regression coefficients are quite unstable and so must be used with care. Assessing the relative costs and benefits of reducing air pollution without extensive sensitivity analysis could, therefore, be misleading.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited By Surowiec I, Karimpour M, Gouveia-Figueira S, Wu J, Unosson J, Bosson J, Blomberg A, Pourazar J, Sandström T, Behndig A, Trygg J and Nording M (2016) Multi-platform metabolomics assays for human lung lavage fluids in an air pollution exposure study, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 10.1007/s00216-016-9566-0, 408:17, (4751-4764), Online publication date: 1-Jul-2016. Bozicevic Vrhovcak M, Tomsic Z and Debrecin N (2005) External costs of electricity production: case study Croatia, Energy Policy, 10.1016/j.enpol.2003.12.015, 33:11, (1385-1395), Online publication date: 1-Jul-2005. 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Vol. 34February 1980Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 February 1980Published in print1 February 1980 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.