Health Impact of Exposure to Particulate Matter in Beijing, China

Effects of Particulate Air Pollution on Blood Pressure in a Highly Exposed Population in Beijing, China: A repeated-measure study (32 page pdf, Andrea Baccarelli, Francesco Barretta, Chang Dou, Xiao Zhang, John P McCracken, Anaite Diaz, Pier Alberto Bertazzi, Joel Schwartz, Sheng Wang, Lifang Hou, Environmental Health, Dec. 21, 2011)

Today’s review article looks at the link between traffic-related particulate matter on the blood pressure of truck drivers, using both personal and ambient measurements. The ambient levels are as much as an order of magnitude greater in Beijing than in average American cities. Results indicate that the greatest impact in blood pressure occurs about a week after exposure rather than in one or a few days for those examined, noting that they already have higher than average blood pressure levels due to diet, obesity and exercise (or lack)- perhaps indicating that PM pollution has its greatest impact on those already suffering from high blood pressure.



Key Quotes:

“Elevated BP is an established risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke, and may be implicated in the association of short-term PM exposure with cardiovascular disease.. An increase as small as 1 mmHg in usual systolic BP is estimated to increase by 2-4% the risk of death due to cardiovascular disease”

“Traffic-derived PM is critical in Beijing due to very high population density and rapid increase in vehicular traffic”

“Truck drivers had higher BMI, reported a higher number of pack-years of smoking, smoked more cigarettes during the study time, and included a higher proportion of usual alcohol drinkers…Average personal PM2.5 was 126.8 μg/m3 in truck drivers and 94.6 μg/m3 for office workers”

“comparatively higher levels of PM exposure exert effects on BP that appear with a delay or possibly require 5-8 days to build up and become detectable”

“the average levels of ambient PM10 in Beijing were approximately 120 μg/m3 during our study. As a reference, the average urban-population weighted PM10 in the United States was 19 μg/m3 in the year 2008”

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