Long-term exposure to fine particle elemental components and mortality in Europe: Results from six European administrative cohorts within the ELAPSE project

Sophia Rodopoulou; Massimo Stafoggia; Jie Chen; Kees de Hoogh; Mariska Bauwelinck; Amar J Mehta; Jochem O Klompmaker; Bente Oftedal; Danielle Vienneau; Nicole A H Janssen; Maciej Strak; Zorana J Andersen; Matteo Renzi; Giulia Cesaroni; Carl Fredrik Nordheim; Terese Bekkevold; Richard Atkinson; Francesco Forastiere; Klea Katsouyanni; Bert Brunekreef; Evangelia Samoli; Gerard Hoek

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152205

Long-term exposure to fine particle elemental components and mortality in Europe: Results from six European administrative cohorts within the ELAPSE project

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Feb 25:809:152205. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152205. Epub 2021 Dec 8.

Authors

Sophia Rodopoulou¹, Massimo Stafoggia², Jie Chen³, Kees de Hoogh⁴, Mariska Bauwelinck⁵, Amar J Mehta⁶, Jochem O Klompmaker⁷, Bente Oftedal⁸, Danielle Vienneau⁹, Nicole A H Janssen¹⁰, Maciej Strak¹¹, Zorana J Andersen¹², Matteo Renzi¹³, Giulia Cesaroni¹⁴, Carl Fredrik Nordheim¹⁵, Terese Bekkevold¹⁶, Richard Atkinson¹⁷, Francesco Forastiere¹⁸, Klea Katsouyanni¹⁹, Bert Brunekreef²⁰, Evangelia Samoli²¹, Gerard Hoek²²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece. Electronic address: srodopoyl@med.uoa.gr.
² Department of Epidemiology, Lazio Region Health Service/ASL Roma 1, Rome, Italy; Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: m.stafoggia@deplazio.it.
³ Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Electronic address: j.chen1@uu.nl.
⁴ Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: c.dehoogh@swisstph.ch.
⁵ Interface Demography - Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: mariska.bauwelinck@vub.be.
⁶ Section of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Methodology and Analysis, Statistics Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: amar.mehta@sund.ku.dk.
⁷ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: jklompmaker@hsph.harvard.edu.
⁸ Department of Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: BenteMargaret.Oftedal@fhi.no.
⁹ Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: danielle.vienneau@swisstph.ch.
¹⁰ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands. Electronic address: nicole.janssen@rivm.nl.
¹¹ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands; Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Electronic address: maciek.strak@rivm.nl.
¹² Section of Environmental and Health, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: vlq961@sund.ku.dk.
¹³ Department of Epidemiology, Lazio Region Health Service/ASL Roma 1, Rome, Italy. Electronic address: m.renzi@deplazio.it.
¹⁴ Department of Epidemiology, Lazio Region Health Service/ASL Roma 1, Rome, Italy. Electronic address: g.cesaroni@deplazio.it.
¹⁵ Department of Zoonotic, Food- and Waterborne Infections, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: CarlFredrik.Nordheim@fhi.no.
¹⁶ Department of Method Development and Analytics, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: Terese.Bekkevold@fhi.no.
¹⁷ Population Health Research, Institute St George's, University of London, London, UK. Electronic address: atkinson@sgul.ac.uk.
¹⁸ Department of Epidemiology, Lazio Region Health Service/ASL Roma 1, Rome, Italy; Science Policy & Epidemiology Environmental Research Group, King's College London, London, UK.
¹⁹ Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece; Environmental Research Group, MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, UK. Electronic address: kkatsouy@med.uoa.gr.
²⁰ Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Electronic address: B.Brunekreef@uu.nl.
²¹ Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece. Electronic address: esamoli@med.uoa.gr.
²² Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Electronic address: g.hoek@uu.nl.

PMID: 34890671
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152205

Abstract

Evidence for the association between long-term exposure to ambient particulate matter components and mortality from natural causes is sparse and inconsistent. We evaluated this association in six large administrative cohorts in the framework of the Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe (ELAPSE) project. We analyzed data from country-wide administrative cohorts in Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and in Rome (Italy). Annual 2010 mean concentrations of copper (Cu), iron (Fe), potassium (K), nickel (Ni), sulfur (S), silicon (Si), vanadium (V) and zinc (Zn) in fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) were estimated using 100 × 100 m Europe-wide hybrid land use regression models assigned to the participants' residential addresses. We applied cohort-specific Cox proportional hazard models controlling for area- and individual-level covariates to evaluate associations with natural mortality. Two pollutant models adjusting for PM_2.5 total mass or nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) were also applied. We pooled cohort-specific estimates using a random effects meta-analysis. We included almost 27 million participants contributing more than 240 million person-years. All components except Zn were significantly associated with natural mortality [pooled Hazard Ratios (HRs) (95% CI): 1.037 (1.014, 1.060) per 5 ng/m³ Cu; 1.069 (1.031, 1.108) per 100 ng/m³ Fe; 1.039 (1.018, 1.062) per 50 ng/m³ K; 1.024 (1.006, 1.043) per 1 ng/m³ Ni; 1.036 (1.016, 1.057) per 200 ng/m³ S; 1.152 (1.048, 1.266) per 100 ng/m³ Si; 1.020 (1.006, 1.034) per 2 ng/m³ V]. Only K and Si were robust to PM_2.5 or NO₂ adjustment [pooled HRs (95% CI) per 50 ng/m³ in K: 1.025 (1.008, 1.044), 1.020 (0.999, 1.042) and per 100 ng/m³ in Si: 1.121 (1.039, 1.209), 1.068 (1.022, 1.117) adjusted for PM_2.5 and NO₂ correspondingly]. Our findings indicate an association of natural mortality with most components, which was reduced after adjustment for PM_2.5 and especially NO₂.

Keywords: Air pollution; Long-term exposure; Natural mortality; Particle components.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants* / analysis
Air Pollution* / analysis
Environmental Exposure / analysis
Europe / epidemiology
Humans
Particulate Matter / analysis

Substances

Air Pollutants
Particulate Matter

Grants and funding

MR/S019669/1/MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom