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Panel discussion review: session 1 — exposure assessment and related errors in air pollution epidemiologic studies

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 17, pages S75–S82 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Examining the validity of exposure metrics used in air pollution epidemiologic models has been a key focus of recent exposure assessment studies. The objective of this work has been, largely, to determine what a given exposure metric represents and to quantify and reduce any potential errors resulting from using these metrics in lieu of true exposure measurements. The current manuscript summarizes the presentations of the co-authors from a recent EPA workshop, held in December 2006, dealing with the role and contributions of exposure assessment in addressing these issues. Results are presented from US and Canadian exposure and pollutant measurement studies as well as theoretical simulations to investigate what both particulate and gaseous pollutant concentrations represent and the potential errors resulting from their use in air pollution epidemiologic studies. Quantifying the association between ambient pollutant concentrations and corresponding personal exposures has led to the concept of defining attenuation factors, or α. Specifically, characterizing pollutant-specific estimates for α was shown to be useful in developing regression calibration methods involving PM epidemiologic risk estimates. For some gaseous pollutants such as NO2 and SO2, the associations between ambient concentrations and personal exposures were shown to be complex and still poorly understood. Results from recent panel studies suggest that ambient NO2 measurements may, in some locations, be serving as surrogates to traffic pollutants, including traffic-related PM2.5, hopanes, steranes, and oxidized nitrogen compounds (rather than NO2).

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Acknowledgements

Analyses from the Harvard field studies, which were presented as part of this workshop session, were conducted with data collected by numerous investigators. We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the following individuals in sharing the data they collected and processed: Kathleen Ward Brown (Harvard School of Public Health), Stefanie E. Sarnat (Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University), Amanda Wheeler (Health Canada), Petros Koutrakis (Harvard School of Public Health), and Helen Suh (Harvard School of Public Health). Dr. Sarnat was funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (Contract no. EP07C000040) for his work in preparing this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Jeremy A Sarnat

  2. National Center for Environmental Assessment, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

    William E Wilson

  3. Division of Biostatistics, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Matthew Strand

  4. Atmospheric Environment Service, Environment Canada, Ontario, Canada

    Jeff Brook

  5. Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, California, USA

    Ron Wyzga

  6. Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Thomas Lumley

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  1. Jeremy A Sarnat
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  2. William E Wilson
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Correspondence to Jeremy A Sarnat.

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This article has been reviewed by the National Center for Environmental Assessment, US Environmental Protection Agency, and approved for publication. Approval does not signify that the contents necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Agency.

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Sarnat, J., Wilson, W., Strand, M. et al. Panel discussion review: session 1 — exposure assessment and related errors in air pollution epidemiologic studies. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 17 (Suppl 2), S75–S82 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jes.7500621

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