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Particulate air pollution, social confounders, and mortality in small areas of an industrial city

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  • Jerrett, Michael
  • Buzzelli, Michael
  • Burnett, Richard T.
  • DeLuca, Patrick F.

Abstract

Scientists and policymakers have shown growing interest in the health effects of chronic air pollution exposure. In this study, we use geostatistical techniques in combination with small-area data to address a central research question: "Does chronic exposure to particulate air pollution significantly associate with mortality when the effects of other social, demographic, and lifestyle confounders are taken into account?" Our analysis relies on age-standardized mortality ratios for census tracts (CTs) of Hamilton (average population of 3419 persons), social and demographic data from the 1991 Census of Canada, smoking variables extracted from secondary surveys, and total suspended particulate (TSP) data from 23 monitoring stations operated by the Ministry of the Environment. Air pollution data are interpolated with a geostatistical procedure known as "kriging". This method translates fixed-site pollution monitoring observations into a continuous surface, which was overlaid onto the population-weighted centroids of the CTs. Our results show substantively large and statistically significant health effects for women and men. Evaluated over the inter-quartile range of the data, we found the relative risk of premature mortality for TSP exposure to be 1.19 (95% CI: 1.13-1.26) for women and 1.30 (95% CI: 1.24-1.37) for men. We also tested associations with cardio-respiratory and cancer mortality. We found positive, significant associations between particulate exposure and these causes of death in most models. Inclusion of socioeconomic, demographic, and lifestyle reduced but did not eliminate the health effects of exposure to particulate air pollution. Overall our results suggest that intra-urban variations in particulate air pollution significantly associate with premature, all-cause, cardio-respiratory, and cancer mortality in small areas of Hamilton.

Suggested Citation

  • Jerrett, Michael & Buzzelli, Michael & Burnett, Richard T. & DeLuca, Patrick F., 2005. "Particulate air pollution, social confounders, and mortality in small areas of an industrial city," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(12), pages 2845-2863, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:60:y:2005:i:12:p:2845-2863
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    1. Duncan, G.J. & Daly, M.C. & McDonogh, P. & Williams, D.R., 2002. "Erratum: Optimal indicators of socioeconomic status for health research (American Journal of Public Health (2002) 92 (1151-1157))," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(8), pages 1212-1212.
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    3. Lagravinese, R. & Moscone, F. & Tosetti, E. & Lee, H., 2014. "The impact of air pollution on hospital admissions: Evidence from Italy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 278-285.
    4. Tor H. Oiamo & Isaac N. Luginaah, 2013. "Extricating Sex and Gender in Air Pollution Research: A Community-Based Study on Cardinal Symptoms of Exposure," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-17, August.
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    6. Shuqiong Huang & Hao Xiang & Wenwen Yang & Zhongmin Zhu & Liqiao Tian & Shiquan Deng & Tianhao Zhang & Yuanan Lu & Feifei Liu & Xiangyu Li & Suyang Liu, 2020. "Short-Term Effect of Air Pollution on Tuberculosis Based on Kriged Data: A Time-Series Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-14, February.
    7. Alassane DRABO, 2010. "Interrelationships between Health, Environment Quality and Economic Activity: What Consequences for Economic Convergence," Working Papers 201005, CERDI.
    8. Olivier Chanel & Laura Perez & Nino Künzli & Sylvia Medina, 2016. "The hidden economic burden of air pollution-related morbidity: evidence from the Aphekom project," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 17(9), pages 1101-1115, December.
    9. Abdelhafidh Dhrifi, 2019. "Does Environmental Degradation, Institutional Quality, and Economic Development Matter for Health? Evidence from African Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 10(3), pages 1098-1113, September.
    10. Anna Rita Germani & Giorgia Marini & Alessio D’Amato & Alan P. Ker, 2025. "Do environmental crimes contribute to air pollution? Empirical evidence and effects on health," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 42(1), pages 59-89, April.
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