Health Effects of PM2.5 and Its Components on Mortality, Blood Pressure, and DNA Methylation

Lingzhen Dai, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University

Epidemiological studies have examined the association between PM2.5 mass and mortality, but there remains uncertainty about the relative importance of species. PM2.5 contains various species, such as organic carbon, elemental carbon, and metals. Determining the differential toxicity of PM2.5 species and identifying species with greatest toxicity is of great importance to emission-control strategies and regulations. In the dissertation thesis, effects of PM2.5 species on health outcomes on different levels were estimated. The first study examined the association between PM2.5 species and mortality on approximately 4.5 million deaths for all causes, cardiovascular diseases, myocardial infarction, stroke, and respiratory diseases in 75 U.S. cities for 2000-2006, using city-season specific Poisson regression and multivariate meta-regression controlled for infiltration. Since...