Objectives Particulate air pollution is associated with cardiovascular events, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. The main objective was to assess the relationship between long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and blood pressure (BP).

Methods The authors used longitudinal data from 853 elderly men participating in the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study, followed during 1996–2008. Long-term average exposures to traffic particles were created from daily predictions of black carbon (BC) exposure at the geocoded address of each subject, using a validated spatiotemporal model based on ambient monitoring at 82 Boston-area locations. The authors examined the association of these exposures with BP using a mixed model. The authors included the following covariates: age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol, fasting glucose, creatinine clearance, use of cardiovascular medication, education, census-level poverty, day of week and season of clinical visit.

Results The authors found significant positive associations between 1-year average BC exposure and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. An IQR increase in 1-year average BC exposure (0.32 μg/m³) was associated with a 2.64 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure (95% CI 1.47 to 3.80) and a 2.41 mm Hg increase in diastolic blood pressure (95% CI 1.77 to 3.05).

Conclusions Long-term exposure to traffic particles is associated with increased BP, which may explain part of the association with myocardial infarctions and cardiovascular deaths reported in cohort studies.