Search

The second colloquium on particulate air pollution marks the reemergence of air pollution, generated by combustion sources, as a serious public health concern throughout the developed world. This article provides a perspective on the epidemiologic evidence on particulate air pollution and health. It addresses the evolution of methods for investigating air pollution and mortality and morbidity and the inter-pretational framework for the findings of the studies. Our work at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, funded by the Health Effects Institute as part of its Particle Epidemiology Evaluation Project, provides the foundation; data are from public-use resources and are analyzed using Poisson regression. Data from previous analyses were replicated, and a detailed analysis for Philadelphia 1974–1988 was conducted to explore the sensitivity of the findings to key modeling assumptions. Our findings show that the association of total suspended particles with mortality pers...