Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Occupational and Environmental Medicine logoLink to Occupational and Environmental Medicine
. 2000 Oct;57(10):692–697. doi: 10.1136/oem.57.10.692

Daily deaths are associated with combustion particles rather than SO2 in Philadelphia

J Schwartz 1
PMCID: PMC1739876  PMID: 10984342

Abstract

OBJECTIVES—To assess whether the association between SO2 and daily deaths in Philadelphia during the years 1974-88 is due to its correlation with airborne particles, and vice versa.
METHODS— There is a significant variation in the relation between total suspended particulate (TSP) and SO2 in Philadelphia by year and season. Firstly, 30 separate regressions were fitted for each pollutant in the warm and cold season of each year. These regressions controlled for weather, long term temporal patterns, and day of the week. Then a meta-regression was performed to find whether the effect of SO2 was due to TSP, or vice versa.
RESULTS—Controlling for TSP, there was no significant association between SO2 and daily deaths. By contrast, in periods when TSP was less correlated with SO2, its association with daily deaths was higher. However, all of the association between TSP and daily deaths was explained by its correlation with extinction coefficient, a measurement of the scattering of light by fine particles, which has been shown to be highly correlated with fine combustion particles in Philadelphia.
CONCLUSIONS—The association between air pollution and daily deaths in Philadelphia is due to fine combustion particles, and not to SO2.


Keywords: air pollution; mortality; hierarchical models

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (163.5 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Fairley D. The relationship of daily mortality to suspended particulates in Santa Clara County, 1980-1986. Environ Health Perspect. 1990 Nov;89:159–168. doi: 10.1289/ehp.9089159. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Katsouyanni K., Touloumi G., Spix C., Schwartz J., Balducci F., Medina S., Rossi G., Wojtyniak B., Sunyer J., Bacharova L. Short-term effects of ambient sulphur dioxide and particulate matter on mortality in 12 European cities: results from time series data from the APHEA project. Air Pollution and Health: a European Approach. BMJ. 1997 Jun 7;314(7095):1658–1663. doi: 10.1136/bmj.314.7095.1658. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Kelsall J. E., Samet J. M., Zeger S. L., Xu J. Air pollution and mortality in Philadelphia, 1974-1988. Am J Epidemiol. 1997 Nov 1;146(9):750–762. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009351. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Moolgavkar S. H., Luebeck E. G., Hall T. A., Anderson E. L. Air pollution and daily mortality in Philadelphia. Epidemiology. 1995 Sep;6(5):476–484. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199509000-00003. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Ozkaynak H., Thurston G. D. Associations between 1980 U.S. mortality rates and alternative measures of airborne particle concentration. Risk Anal. 1987 Dec;7(4):449–461. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1987.tb00482.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Pope C. A., 3rd, Schwartz J., Ransom M. R. Daily mortality and PM10 pollution in Utah Valley. Arch Environ Health. 1992 May-Jun;47(3):211–217. doi: 10.1080/00039896.1992.9938351. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Schimmel H., Murawski T. J. Proceedings: The relation of air pollution to mortality. J Occup Med. 1976 May;18(5):316–333. doi: 10.1097/00043764-197605000-00006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Schwartz J. Air pollution and daily mortality in Birmingham, Alabama. Am J Epidemiol. 1993 May 15;137(10):1136–1147. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116617. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Schwartz J. Air pollution and daily mortality in Birmingham, Alabama. Am J Epidemiol. 1993 May 15;137(10):1136–1147. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116617. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Schwartz J. Air pollution and daily mortality: a review and meta analysis. Environ Res. 1994 Jan;64(1):36–52. doi: 10.1006/enrs.1994.1005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Schwartz J. Air pollution and hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease in Tucson. Epidemiology. 1997 Jul;8(4):371–377. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199707000-00004. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Schwartz J. Air pollution and hospital admissions for respiratory disease. Epidemiology. 1996 Jan;7(1):20–28. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199601000-00005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Schwartz J. Assessing confounding, effect modification, and thresholds in the association between ambient particles and daily deaths. Environ Health Perspect. 2000 Jun;108(6):563–568. doi: 10.1289/ehp.00108563. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Schwartz J., Dockery D. W. Increased mortality in Philadelphia associated with daily air pollution concentrations. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1992 Mar;145(3):600–604. doi: 10.1164/ajrccm/145.3.600. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Schwartz J., Levin R. Drinking water turbidity and health. Epidemiology. 1999 Jan;10(1):86–90. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199901000-00017. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Speizer F. E., Frank N. R. The uptake and release of SO2 by the human nose. Arch Environ Health. 1966 Jun;12(6):725–728. doi: 10.1080/00039896.1966.10664471. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Zeger S. L., Thomas D., Dominici F., Samet J. M., Schwartz J., Dockery D., Cohen A. Exposure measurement error in time-series studies of air pollution: concepts and consequences. Environ Health Perspect. 2000 May;108(5):419–426. doi: 10.1289/ehp.00108419. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Occupational and Environmental Medicine are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES