European Long Term Cohort Study Confirms PM-Mortality Link
A study published by The Lancet concludes that “long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution may shorten life expectancy.”
Dutch researchers studied 5,000 people in the Netherlands from 1986 to 1994, that were participants in a prospective cohort study on diet and cancer. They found that people living near major roads with higher concentrations of black smoke were at increased risk of premature death from cardiopulmonary causes.
The researchers note that traffic emissions contain many pollutants that might be responsible for the mortality association, including ultrafine particles, diesel soot and nitrogen oxides, though they added that nitrogen dioxide is unlikely to cause death.
“The specificity of the association and the consistency with chronic morbidity studies, adds to the plausibility of traffic-related air pollution effects,” conclude the researchers.
The study is significant because it confirms the Harvard Six Cities Study and the American Cancer Society Study which linked long-term exposure to particulate air pollution to premature death in the U.S.
The Lancet [www.thelancet.com] offers the full study online.
Hoek G, Brunekreef B, Goldbohm S, Fischer P, van den Brandt PA. Association between mortality and indicators of traffic-related air pollution in the Netherlands: a cohort study. The Lancet 1002;360:1203-1209.
