Association of lung function in a panel of young healthy adults with various chemical components of ambient fine particulate air pollution in Beijing, China.

Abstract: Background: Ambient fine particulate air pollution has been associated with impaired lung function, but the chemical components behind the association are not well understood. Objectives: We investigated the short-term effects of various air pollutants and chemical components of ambient fine particles (PM2.5) on lung function in a panel of 40 healthy university students. Methods: The study subjects underwent biweekly spirometry tests for 12 times before and after their natural relocation from a suburban area to an urban area with changing air pollution levels and contents in Beijing, China. We estimated the short-term air pollution effects on lung function by applying four different mixed-effects models: single-pollutant model, component-PM2.5 joint model (two-pollutant model), component residual model, and exposure partitioned model. Results: Among the air pollutants, PM2.5 showed the most robust estimated effects on different lung function measures in a similar action pattern. Most air pollutants and PM2.5 chemical components were positively associated with lung function measures at a short-term averaging time (3-d moving average) and inversely associated with them at a longer averaging time (14-d moving average). We found consistent positive associations between chloride, zinc, copper, vanadium, lead, stannum and different lung function measures at 3-d moving average. We also found consistent inverse associations between calcium, magnesium and peak expiratory flow at 14-d moving average. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that PM2.5 and several metallic components may be the major air pollutants that contribute to the lung function changes. These findings may help achieve a better understanding of the features of a complex air pollution mixture that are most deleterious to health, and may also have implications for more targeted and effective pollution regulations aiming to improve the public health. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]