Elsevier

Environmental Research

Volume 96, Issue 3, November 2004, Pages 328-337
Environmental Research

Interactions between particulate air pollution and temperature in air pollution mortality time series studies

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2004.01.015Get rights and content

Abstract

In many community time series studies on the effect of particulate air pollution on mortality, particulate air pollution is modeled additively. In this study, we investigated the interaction between daily particulate air pollution and daily mean temperature in Cook County, Illinois and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, using data for the period 1987–1994. This was done through the use of joint particulate air pollution–temperature response surfaces and by stratifying the effect of particulate air pollution on mortality by temperature. Evidence that the effect of particulate air pollution on mortality may depend on temperature is found. However, the results were sensitive to the number of degrees of freedom used in the confounder adjustments, the particulate air pollution exposure measure, and how the effects of temperature on mortality are modeled. The results were less sensitive to the estimation method used—generalized linear models and natural cubic splines or generalized additive models and smoothing splines. The results of this study suggest that in community particulate air pollution mortality time series studies the possibility of an interaction between daily particulate air pollution and daily mean temperature should be considered.

Introduction

There have been numerous community time series studies on the effects of particulate air pollution on mortality (Daniels et al., 2000; Dominici 2002a, Dominici 2002b; Katsouyanni 1997, Katsouyanni 2001; Kelsall et al., 1997; Michelozzi et al., 1998; Moolgavkar, 2000; Moolgavkar 1995a, Moolgavkar 1995b; Samet et al., 2000; Schwartz, 2000; Schwartz and Dockery, 1992; Schwartz and Marcus, 1990; Smith et al., 2000; Styer et al., 1995; Sunyer et al., 1996; Touloumi et al., 1996; Wong et al., 2001). These studies typically fit a generalized additive model (GAM) (Hastie and Tibshirani, 1990) or a generalized linear model (GLM) (McCullagh and Nelder, 1989) to concurrent time series of daily mortality, particulate air pollution, and meteorological covariates. The fitted models are then used to quantify the effect of particulate air pollution on mortality. A number of these studies investigated the interaction between particulate air pollution and season (Katsouyanni et al., 1997; Kelsall et al., 1997; Michelozzi et al., 1998; Moolgavkar 1995a, Moolgavkar 1995b; Schwartz, 2000; Smith et al., 2000; Styer et al., 1995; Sunyer et al., 1996; Touloumi et al., 1996; Wong et al., 2001). Few studies have looked at the interaction between particulate air pollution and temperature. Katsouyanni et al. (1993) investigated the interaction between air pollution and high temperature. They found that the interaction between high levels of particulate air pollution (measured by smoke) and high temperature was suggestive (p<0.20). Samet et al. (1998) investigated the sensitivity of the particulate air pollution (measured by total suspended particles) mortality effect estimate to alternative methods of controlling weather. They also looked at the interaction between particulate air pollution and weather but did not look explicitly at the interaction between particulate air pollution and temperature. Their analysis was carried out using four different weather models and Poisson log-linear regression. The first two weather models used parametric functions and nonparametric functions of weather, respectively. The third and fourth models used synoptic weather categories. They found little evidence of an interaction between particulate air pollution and weather.

The association between extremes of temperature and increased mortality is well known (Basu and Samet, 2002; Curriero et al., 2002; Mercer, 2003). It is also known that marked changes in ambient temperature can cause physiological stress and alter a person's physiological response to toxic agents (Gordon, 2003). This suggests that an interaction between particulate air pollution and temperature is plausible. We investigate this possibility by (1) using a two-dimensional smooth response surface to model the joint effect of particulate air pollution and temperature on mortality, in a continuous manner, and (2) stratifying the effects of particulate air pollution on mortality by temperature. These are similar to the methods used by Morris and Naumova (1998), who investigated the interaction of carbon monoxide and temperature on daily hospital admissions for congestive heart failure.

Section snippets

Data

The data used in this paper are concurrent daily time series of mortality, temperature, dew point temperature, and particulate air pollution from Cook County, Illinois and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania for the period 1987 to 1994, inclusive. These are the same Cook County and Allegheny County data used by Samet et al. (2000).

The mortality time series, aggregated at the level of county, are nonaccidental daily deaths of individuals aged 65 years and over. Deaths of nonresidents were excluded

Results

We start our investigation of the interaction between PM and temperature using response surfaces (Model 1) as an exploratory tool. The fitted response surfaces will then be used as a guide to help construct appropriate stratified models (Models 2B and 3).

In the results that follow parameter estimation uses the stricter convergence criteria suggested by Dominici 2002a, Dominici 2002b. The standard errors for the PM mortality effect estimates obtained from GAM estimation will be computed using

Simulation study

It can be important to allow for the possibility of an interaction between PM and temperature. For example, in Cook County the PM mortality effect estimates using no-interaction Model 2A along with GLM estimation and exposure measure PM1 were 0.36, 0.14, and 0.10, for α=0.5,1, and 2, respectively. The corresponding PM mortality effect estimates in the upper temperature stratum from interaction Model 2B were 0.62, 0.30, and 0.46. In this situation, allowing for an interaction between PM and

Discussion

In this study, we used two methods to investigate the interaction between PM and temperature. The results of fitting a joint PM–temperature response surface were suggestive of an interaction between PM and temperature. The response surfaces for both Cook County and Allegheny County indicate that the effects of PM on mortality are largest on days of extreme temperature. The response surfaces can also be used as an exploratory tool. Once fit, the shape of the surface can be used to aid the search

Acknowledgements

I thank Paul Switzer for his comments and Scott Zeger for the combined Cook County and Allegheny County mortality and meteorological data used in this paper. The author was partially supported by a Stanford Graduate Fellowship.

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