Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Fuks, Kateryna
• Moebus, Susanne
• Hertel, Sabine
• Viehmann, Anja
• Nonnemacher, Michael
• Dragano, Nico
• Möhlenkamp, Stefan
• Jakobs, Hermann
• Kessler, Christoph
• Erbel, Raimund
• Hoffmann, Barbara

Titel

Long-Term Urban Particulate Air Pollution, Traffic Noise, and Arterial Blood Pressure

Ist Teil von

• Environmental health perspectives, 2011-12, Vol.119 (12), p.1706-1711

Ort / Verlag

Research Triangle Park, NC: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• BACKGROUND: Recent studies have shown an association of short-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) with transient increases in blood pressure (BP), but it is unclear whether long-term exposure has an effect on arterial BP and hypertension. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the cross-sectional association of residential long-term PM exposure with arterial BP and hypertension, taking short-term variations of PM and long-term road traffic noise exposure into account. METHODS: We used baseline data (2000—2003) on 4,291 participants, 45—75 years of age, from the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study, a population-based prospective cohort in Germany. Urban background exposure to PM with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm (PM₂.₅) and ≤ 10 μm (PM₁₀) was assessed with a dispersion and chemistry transport model. We used generalized additive models, adjusting for short-term PM, meteorology, traffic proximity, and individual risk factors. RESULTS: An interquartile increase in PM₂.₅ (2.4 μg/m³) was associated with estimated increases in mean systolic and diastolic BP of 1.4 minHg [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.5, 2.3] and 0.9 mmHg (95% CI: 0.4, 1.4), respectively. The observed relationship was independent of long-term exposure to road traffic noise and robust to the inclusion of many potential confounders. Residential proximity to high traffic and traffic noise exposure showed a tendency toward higher BP and an elevated prevalence of hypertension. CONCLUSIONS: We found an association of long-term exposure to PM with increased arterial BP in a population-based sample. This finding supports our hypothesis that long-term PM exposure may promote atheroscleroeis, with air-pollution-induced increases BP being one possible biological pathway.