Air Pollution and Daily Mortality : A Hypothesis Concerning the Role of Impaired Homeostasis

By Frank, Robert

Book Id: WPLBN0000043734
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.7 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	Air Pollution and Daily Mortality : A Hypothesis Concerning the Role of Impaired Homeostasis
Author:	Frank, Robert
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Government publications, United Nations., United Nations. Office for Disarmament Affairs
Collections:	Government Library Collection, Disarmament Documents
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	United Nations- Office for Disarmament Affairs (Unoda)


Citation APA MLA Chicago Frank, B. R. (n.d.). Air Pollution and Daily Mortality : A Hypothesis Concerning the Role of Impaired Homeostasis. Retrieved from https://self.gutenberg.org/

Description
Government Reference Publication

Excerpt
Excerpt: Epidemiologic Background Perhaps the most compelling evidence for an effect of low levels of airborne particulate matter (PM) on health comes from timeseries regression analyses that link daily fluctuations in PM and mortality. The evidence is descriptive; the studies were retrospective, so variables could not be manipulated to test specific hypotheses. The approach, although powerful statistically, has rested on several premises: a) that a limited number of fixed outdoor monitors of air quality, a circumstance universal to these analyses, provided reliable estimates of exposure of the population- at-risk; and that adequate adjustments were made for both b) potential confounders, such as collinear air pollutants and changes in weather, and for c) cyclic factors that might modify mortality rate, such as day of the week and seasonal trends. Daily and seasonal changes in weather may affect mortality rate both directly and indirectly, the latter by influencing the physicochemical properties and ground-level concentrations of PM and of air pollution in general. The soundness of these underlying premises remains a matter of debate.