Identifying the mechanisms for the effects of air pollution on cardiopulmonary disease in Beijing, China

中国等大城市及其周边地区的空气污染水平位居世界最高之列。中国目前有超过一半的人口居住在城市，空气污染和空气质量是重要的地方和国家政策问题。与此同时，中国正在经历健康方面的变化：儿童死亡人数大幅下降，人们活到了高龄，而心肺疾病更常见、更重要。城市空气污染是中国健康问题和疾病的主要原因之一，对心脏和肺部的影响尤其大。我们从欧洲和北美的研究中知道，空气污染对人体健康不利，但对这种情况发生的方式和原因，以及不同来源的空气污染是或多或少造成影响，我们知之甚少。对于中国的这些机制更是知之甚少，因为空气污染可能来自不同的来源，因此具有不同的化学成分。这些知识对于决定减少空气污染对健康影响的最有效战略是很重要的。在这个研究项目中，来自中国和英国的顶尖科学家将密切合作，利用流行病学和生物科学的现代方法，更好地了解中国空气污染的哪些成分影响人类健康，以及这些影响是如何发生的。这些知识将与我们相关研究项目的信息一起用于确定在中国城市保护人类健康免受空气污染影响的最有效方法。

Large cities in China, including the capital city of Beijing, and their surrounding areas have some of the highest air pollution levels in the world. With over one half of China's population now living in cities, air pollution and air quality are important local and national policy issues. At the same time, China is undergoing changes in health: Deaths in children have come down impressively, and people live to older ages when diseases of the heart and the lung are more common and important. Air pollution in cities is one of the main causes of health problems and disease in China, with especially large effects on the heart and the lung.We know from research in Europe and North America that air pollution adversely affects human health, but we know little about how and why this happens, and whether air pollution from different sources has more or less effects. Even less is known about what these mechanisms are in China, where air pollution may be from different sources and therefore have different chemistry. This knowledge is important for deciding what the most effective strategies to reduce the health effects of air pollution are. In this research project, leading scientists from China and the United Kingdom will work closely to use modern methods in epidemiology and biological sciences to better understand which components of air pollution affects human health in China, and how these effects occur. This knowledge will be used together with information from our related research projects to identify the most effective ways of protecting human health from air pollution in Chinese cities.