Background: There have been no studies of air pollution and mortality in Lima, Peru. We evaluate whether daily environmental PM2.5 exposure is associated to respiratory and cardiovascular mortality in Lima during 2010 to 2016.
Methods: We analyzed 86,970 deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in Lima from 2010 to 2016. Estimated daily PM2.5 was assigned based on district of residence. Poisson regression was used to estimate associations between daily district-level PM2.5 exposures and daily counts of deaths.
Results: An increase in 10 μg/m3 PM2.5 on the day before was significantly associated with daily cardiorespiratory mortality (RR 1.029; 95% CI: 1.01-1.05) across all ages and in the age group over 65 (RR 1.04; 95% CI: 1.005-1.09) which included 74% of all deaths. We also observed associations with circulatory deaths for all age groups (RR 1.06; 95% CI: 1.01-1.11), and those over 65 (RR 1.06; 95% CI 1.00-1.12). A borderline significant trend was seen (RR 1.05; 95% CI 0.99-1.06; p = 0.10) for respiratory deaths in persons aged over 65. Trends were driven by the highest quintile of exposure.
Conclusions: PM2.5 exposure is associated with daily cardiorespiratory mortality in Lima, especially for older people. Our data suggest that the existing limits on air pollution exposure are too high.
Keywords: Air pollution; Lima; Mortality; Particulate matter (PM2.5).