American Journal of Public Health
Effects of air pollution on blood pressure: a population-based approach
Over the last 20 years, much research has been devoted to the effects of air pollution on our health. Many hypotheses have been proposed, but studies directly linking air pollution to blood pressure are rare. The authors of this article attempted to demonstrate such a link.
Presented is a retrospective analysis of data collected during the MONICA project, a project conducted by the World Health Organization to MONItor trends in CArdiovascular diseases in Augsburg, Germany. In this project, data were collected from 1984 through 1985 and from 1987 through 1988. In all, 4022 people were interviewed and examined between 1984 and 1985; 3753 of these people had follow-up examinations in 1987–1988. This current study analyzes data from 2607 of these individuals. Heart rate, blood pressure, and plasma viscosity were all measured on each of the patients. In addition, atmospheric levels of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and total suspended particulates were obtained.
Gaussian regression models were used to assess for an association between air pollution and systolic blood pressure. Although it was found that systolic blood pressure increased as air pollution worsened, confounding factors blurred the association. When the authors controlled for temperature, barometric pressure, and relative humidity, there was much less of a correlation. After controlling for the meteorological conditions mentioned, there was only a 1- to 2-mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure attributable to increased levels of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and total suspended particles. The greatest factor seemed to be the number of total suspended particles on a given day. In individuals with a high plasma viscosity, increased numbers of total suspended particles caused an increase of approximately 7 mm Hg in the systolic blood pressure.
This study provides data that suggest a link between air pollution and increases in systolic blood pressure. It also implicates temperature, barometric pressure, and relative humidity as factors in blood pressure. What this study does not establish, however, is whether such slight changes in blood pressure are at all clinically significant. Also, the results of this study have intrinsically limited power secondary to the multifactorial nature of blood pressure. Long-term prospective trials are needed to further assess the effects of air pollution on blood pressure.
(Am J Public Health. 2001;91:571–577) A. Ibald-Mulli, J. Steiber, H. E. Wichmann, W. Koenig, and A. Peters.
Article info
Identification
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1580/1080-6032(2001)012[0213:AOCL]2.0.CO;2
Copyright
© 2001 Wilderness Medical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
