BACKGROUND: The temporal pattern of effects of summertime ozone (O(3)) in total, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality were investigated in 21 European cities participating in the APHEA-2 (Air Pollution and Health: a European Approach) project, which is fundamental in determining the importance of the effect in terms of life loss. METHODS: Data from each city were analysed separately using distributed lag models with up to 21 lags. City-specific air pollution estimates were regressed on city-specific covariates to obtain overall estimates and to explore sources of possible heterogeneity. RESULTS: Stronger effects on respiratory mortality that extend to a period of 2 weeks were found. A 10 mug/m(3) increase in O(3) was associated with a 0.36% (95% CI -0.21% to 0.94%) increase in respiratory deaths for lag 0 and with 3.35% (95% CI 1.90% to 4.83%) for lags 0-20. Significant adverse health effects were found of summer O(3) (June-August) on total and cardiovascular mortality that persist up to a week, but are counterbalanced by negative effects thereafter. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that studies on acute health effects of O(3) using single-day exposures may have overestimated the effects on total and cardiovascular mortality, but underestimated the effects on respiratory mortality. (R.A.)
Auteur : Samoli E, Zanobetti A, Schwartz J, Atkinson R, Le Tertre A, Schindler C, Perez L, Cadum E, Pekkanen J, Paldy A, Touloumi G, Katsouyanni K
Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2009, vol. 63, n°. 12, p. 960-6
