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Association of criteria pollutants with plasma hemostatic/inflammatory markers: a population-based study

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 15, pages 319–328 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

To elucidate the health effects of air pollution, the short-term association of criteria pollutants (particles <10 μm in diameter [PM10], O3, CO, NO2, and SO2) with hemostatic and inflammatory markers were examined using a population-based sample of 10,208 middle-age males and females of the biracial cohort of Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. For each participant, we calculated the following pollutant exposures 1–3 days prior to the randomly allocated cohort examination date: PM10, CO, NO2, and SO2 as 24-h averages, and O3 as an 8-h average of the hourly measures. The hemostatic/inflammatory factors included fibrinogen, factor VIII-C, von Willebrand factor (vWF), albumin, and white blood cell count (WBC). Linear regression models were used to adjust for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, demographic and socioeconomic variables, and relevant meteorological variables. One standard deviation (SD) increment of PM10 (12.8 μg/m3) was significantly (P<0.05) associated with 3.93% higher of vWF among diabetics and 0.006 g/dl lower of serum albumin among persons with a history of CVD. One SD increment of CO (0.60 p.p.m.) was significantly (P<0.01) associated with 0.018 g/dl lower of serum albumin. Significant curvilinear associations, indicative of threshold effects, for PM10 with factor VIII-C, O3 with fibrinogen and vWF, and SO2 with factor VIII-C, WBC, and serum albumin were found. This population-based study suggest that the hemostasis/inmflammation markers analyzed, which are linked to higher risk of CHD, are associated adversely with environmentally relevant ambient pollutants, with the strongest associations in the upper range of the pollutant distributions, and in persons with a positive history of diabetes and CHD.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by US National Institute of Health, NIEHS Grant 1-R01-ES10189-01 and EPA Grant R82-7994-010. We thank the staff and participants in the ARIC study for their important contributions. We also thank the ARIC study for allowing us to use the ARIC data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Evaluation Sciences, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA

    Duanping Liao, Vernon M Chinchilli, Yinkang Duan & Hung-Mo Lin

  2. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

    Gerardo Heiss

  3. Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Aaron R Folsom

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion, KTL-National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland

    Veikko Salomaa

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  1. Duanping Liao
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Correspondence to Duanping Liao.

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Liao, D., Heiss, G., Chinchilli, V. et al. Association of criteria pollutants with plasma hemostatic/inflammatory markers: a population-based study. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 15, 319–328 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jea.7500408

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