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Cardiovascular impacts and micro-environmental exposure factors associated with continuous personal PM2.5 monitoring

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 24, pages 337–345 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (US EPA) Detroit Exposure and Aerosol Research Study (DEARS) has provided extensive data on human exposures to a wide variety of air pollutants and their impact on human health. Previous analyses in the DEARS revealed select cardiovascular (CV) health outcomes such as increase in heart rate (HR) associated with hourly based continuous personal fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposures in this adult, non-smoking cohort. Examination of time activity diary (TAD), follow-up questionnaire (FQ) and the continuous PM2.5 personal monitoring data provided the means to more fully examine the impact of discreet human activity patterns on personal PM2.5 exposures and changes in CV outcomes. A total of 329 343 min-based PM2.5 personal measurements involving 50 participants indicated that ∼75% of these total events resulted in exposures <35 μg/m3. Cooking and car-related events accounted for nearly 10% of the hourly activities that were identified with observed peaks in personal PM2.5 exposures. In-residence cooking often resulted in some of the highest incidents of 1 min exposures (33.5–17.6 μg/m3), with average peaks for such events in excess of 209 μg/m3. PM2.5 exposure data from hourly based personal exposure activities (for example,, cooking, cleaning and household products) were compared with daily CV data from the DEARS subject population. A total of 1300 hourly based lag risk estimates associated with changes in brachial artery diameter and flow-mediated dilatation (BAD and FMD, respectively), among others, were defined for this cohort. Findings indicate that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposures resulted in significant HR changes between 3 and 7 h following the event, and exposure to smells resulted in increases in BAD on the order of 0.2–0.7 mm/μg/m3. Results demonstrate that personal exposures may be associated with several biological responses, sometimes varying in degree and direction in relation to the extent of the exposure.

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Acknowledgements

The US Environmental Protection Agency through its Office of Research and Development funded and conducted the research described here under contract 68-D-00-012 (RTI International), EP-D-04-068 (Battelle Columbus Laboratory), 68-D-00-206 and EP-05-D-065 (Alion Science and Technology). It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for use. The US EPA acknowledges the staffs of Alion Science and Technology for preparation of sampling media and RTI International for overseeing field data collections. We thank the DEARS cohort for their participation.

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Author notes

  1. Davyda Hammond: Currently affiliated with Germanna Community College, Fredericksburg, VA, USA.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. US Environmental Protection Agency, MD E-205-04, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA

    Davyda Hammond, Carry Croghan & Ron Williams

  2. Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Hwashin Shin & Richard Burnett

  3. Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Robert Bard & Robert D Brook

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  1. Davyda Hammond
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  2. Carry Croghan
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Correspondence to Ron Williams.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest. All human interactions in the collection of the data presented were approved by Institutional Review Boards and all Human Subjects Approving Offices associated with the study.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology website

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Hammond, D., Croghan, C., Shin, H. et al. Cardiovascular impacts and micro-environmental exposure factors associated with continuous personal PM2.5 monitoring. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 24, 337–345 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2013.46

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