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

包括首都北京在内的中国大城市及其周边地区的空气污染水平是世界上最高的。中国现在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，中国的健康状况也在发生变化：儿童死亡率显著下降，人们寿命延长，而心肺疾病变得更加常见和重要。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得知，空气污染会对人类健康产生不利影响，但我们对这种情况是如何发生的以及为什么会发生，以及来自不同来源的空气污染是否会产生或多或少的影响知之甚少。在中国，人们对这些机制的了解就更少了，那里的空气污染可能来自不同的来源，因此具有不同的化学成分。这一知识对于决定减少空气污染对健康影响的最有效战略是非常重要的。在这个研究项目中，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，更好地了解空气污染的哪些成分影响中国的人类健康，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使用，以确定保护人类健康免受中国城市空气污染的最有效方法。

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.