What's wrong with the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5)?
What's wrong with the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5)?
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DOI：
10.1006/rtph.2002.1548
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发表时间：
2002-06-01
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Lash, TL
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Green, LC;Crouch, EAC;Lash, TL
空气中细颗粒物浓度(PM2.5)与死亡率之间的关系主要是通过生态学或符号学流行病学研究来调查的。许多调查人员和监管机构推断，经常观察到的微弱、积极的联系是有因果关系的，它适用于所有形式的空气中PM2.5，目前环境中的PM2.5水平需要降低。在实施严格的环境PM2.5法规之前，分析人士应该停下来考虑一下积累的证据是否足够和足够详细，以支持PM2.5国家环境空气质量标准。我们采取两条路线。首先，我们分析了毒理学证据，发现它与目前环境中所有形式的细颗粒物的浓度应该影响肺、心脏或所有原因死亡率的概念不一致。更广泛地说，我们注意到PM2.5的数千种形式非常不同，但PM2.5 NAAQS假设它们在毒理上是相同的，并假设降低环境中任何形式的PM2.5的浓度都会改善公众健康。其次，我们根据两个相关的符号学关联的例子来检查流行病学证据，这两个例子既告知PM-死亡率关联，又被个体水平的数据所质疑。总而言之，毒理学证据和从类似的流行病学关联中吸取的经验教训应该鼓励在实施额外监管之前，当然在这种关联被描述为因果关系并适用于所有PM2.5之前，进一步调查颗粒物和死亡率之间的关联。(C)2002年埃尔塞维尔科学公司(美国)。
Associations between airborne concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and mortality rates have been investigated primarily by ecologic or semiecologic epidemiology studies. Many investigators and regulatory agencies have inferred that the weak, positive association often observed is causal, that it applies to all forms of airborne PM2.5, and that current ambient levels of PM2.5 require reduction. Before implementing stringent regulations of ambient PM2.5, analysts should pause to consider whether the accumulated evidence is sufficient, and sufficiently detailed, to support the PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standard. We take two tacks. First, we analyze the toxicologic evidence, finding it inconsistent with the notion that current ambient concentrations of all forms of fine particulate matter should affect pulmonary, cardiac, or all-cause mortality rates. More generally, we note that the thousands of forms of PM2.5 are remarkably diverse, yet the PM2.5 NAAQS presumes them to be identical toxicologically, and presumes that reducing ambient concentrations of any form of PM2.5 will improve public health. Second, we examine the epidemiologic evidence in light of two related examples of semiecologic associations, examples that both inform the PM-mortality association and have been called into question by individual-level data. Taken together, the toxicologic evidence and lessons learned from analogous epidemiologic associations should encourage further investigation of the association between particulate matter and mortality rates before additional regulation is implemented, and certainly before the association is characterized as causal and applicable to all PM2.5. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).