National Assessment of the Mortality and Morbidity Effects of Tropospheric Ozone

描述（由申请人提供）： 拟议的研究旨在通过流行病学研究和生物统计分析对臭氧和死亡率以及住院情况进行全国评估，以解决臭氧与健康科学知识方面的关键差距。具体来说，主要目标是调查臭氧与死亡率和入院率之间的关系，涉及死亡率位移、长期暴露、分布滞后曲线的形状、与颗粒物 (PM) 的潜在相互作用、社区特定估计值之间的异质性和阈值效应。美国环保局最近对臭氧与健康科学信息的综合显示，有关臭氧与人类健康的文献存在巨大差距，包括具体目标中概述的内容。这项研究直接关系到 NIEHS 的目标，即减轻环境相关疾病的负担、促进年轻研究人员的职业发展，并为支持政策提供坚实的科学基础。美国有超过一亿人居住在臭氧超标的地区，使臭氧成为美国最紧迫的空气污染问题之一。该提案的一个关键组成部分是通过开发相互作用模型以及研究PM成分的变化是否可以解释臭氧效应估计中的空间和时间异质性来研究臭氧和PM之间的潜在相互作用。这项工作与 NIEHS 的倡议一致，即确定复杂混合物对健康的影响，并开发适应复杂混合物的统计和数学模型。这项研究的结果预计将与臭氧方面以及从长远来看更广泛的空气污染和健康方面具有高度的政策相关性。这项工作的总体目标是提供可广泛应用于环境健康研究的统计技术，例如其他健康结果和其他污染物的统计技术。与公共卫生的相关性：这项研究调查了臭氧（一种常见的城市空气污染物）如何影响入院率和死亡率。这项工作的目标是让决策者、科学家和公众更好地了解臭氧如何影响健康，以帮助做出更有效的保护人类健康的决策。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research aims to address critical gaps in scientific knowledge of ozone and health with a national assessment of ozone and mortality and hospital admissions through epidemiological studies and biostatistical analysis. Specifically, the primary objectives are to investigate the relationship between ozone and mortality and hospital admissions, with respect to mortality displacement, longer-term exposure, the shape of the distributed lag curve, potential interaction with particulate matter (PM), heterogeneity among community-specific estimates, and threshold effects. Recent synthesis of scientific information on ozone and health by the United States EPA revealed considerable gaps in the literature on ozone and human health, including those outlined in the specific aims. This research directly relates to the NIEHS goals of reducing the burden of environmentally associated disease, contributing to career enhancement of young researchers, and providing a sound scientific foundation to support policy. More than 100 million people in the United States reside in areas exceeding the ozone standard, making ozone one of the nation's most pressing air pollution problems. A key component of the proposal is to investigate potential interaction between ozone and PM through the development of interaction models and through study of whether variation in PM composition can explain spatial and temporal heterogeneity in ozone effect estimates. This work is consistent with NIEHS initiatives to identify the health effects from complex mixtures and to develop statistical and mathematical models that accommodate complex mixtures. Results from this research are anticipated to be highly policy-relevant, both with respect to ozone and in the long-term with regards to air pollution and health more generally. An overall objective of this work is to contribute statistical techniques that could be applied broadly in environmental health research, such as to other health outcomes and other pollutants. Relevance to public health: This research investigates how hospital admissions and mortality are affected by ozone, a common urban air pollutant. The goal of this work is to provide policy-makers, scientists, and the public with a better understanding of how ozone affects health in order to aid more effective decisions regarding protection of human health.