Ambient air pollution
µg/m³
Outdoor fine particles and nitrogen dioxide estimated at the home address, often during pregnancy. Indoor cooking smoke and a blood metal are different numbers.
The papers estimate outdoor concentrations at the address with land-use regression or satellite surfaces. Fine particles (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide, a traffic marker, are the usual metrics. The number is the air outside. Blood lead is a body burden, not the same reading.
Also called PM2.5, fine particulate matter, NO2, nitrogen dioxide, traffic pollution.
Connected relationships
Observational · Low
Ambient air pollution→Cognitive performance
Higher Ambient air pollution decreases Cognitive performance.
Pregnancy-average outdoor PM2.5 tracked 1.79 fewer full-scale IQ points per 3 µg/m³ at age 10.5 in 568 Salinas Valley children, while six European birth cohorts (9,482 children) found no association between pregnancy air pollution and cognition at ages 1 to 6. Nobody randomized the air.
Observational · Low
Ambient air pollution→All-cause mortality
Higher Ambient air pollution increases All-cause mortality.
Hao 2023's Medicare cohort of about 73.4 million adults 65 and older found a 4.0 percent higher all-cause death rate per 3.68 µg/m³ of annual PM2.5 (HR 1.040, 1.039 to 1.041). Nobody randomized the air.
Sources
- M Guxens et al. (2015). Air pollution during pregnancy and childhood cognitive and psychomotor development: six European birth cohorts.
- SM Holm et al. (2023). Cognitive Development and Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure in the CHAMACOS Cohort.
- M Abed Al Ahad et al. (2023). Long-term exposure to air pollution and mortality in Scotland: A register-based individual-level longitudinal study.
- H Hao et al. (2023). National Cohort Study of Long-Term Exposure to PM2.5 Components and Mortality in Medicare American Older Adults.
- J Chen et al. (2023). Ambient Air Pollution and Risk of Enterotomy, Gastrointestinal Cancer, and All-Cause Mortality among 4,708 Individuals with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Prospective Cohort Study.