Health Effects of Ozone and Particle Pollution cont'd

Data in the American Lung Association State of the Air: 2004 come from monitors measuring the concentration of fine particles only. EPA reports particle pollution in terms of two forms, as a 24-hour average and as an annual average.5 For the purposes of this report, the American Lung Association will refer to the data reported as the 24-hour average as "short-term" particle pollution and the data reported as the annual average as "year-round" particle pollution. A data collection network for PM10-2.5 does not yet exist, though estimates of this size are made by extrapolating data from the older network of PM10 monitors, which monitor all particles 10 microns or smaller.

Where Does Particle Pollution Come From?

Coarse particles are formed primarily during mechanical processes -- the breaking down of bigger bits into smaller bits. Construction and demolition, mining operations, agriculture, and coal and oil combustion are some of the activities that produce coarse particles. They are emitted directly.6

By contrast, chemical processes in the atmosphere create most fine particles. Gases emitted from combustion sources form particles in two ways: the gases can simply vaporize and then condense to become a particle of the same chemical compound; or they can react with other gases in the atmosphere to form a particle of a different chemical compound. Particles formed by this latter process chiefly come from the reaction of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds with ammonium and other compounds in the atmosphere. Burning fossil fuels in factories, power plants, steel mills, smelters, diesel- and gasoline-powered motor vehicles generate a large part of the raw materials for fine particles, but so does burning wood in residential fireplaces and wood stoves and agricultural burning.7

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In the early 1990s, dozens of short-term community health studies from cities throughout the United States and around the world indicated that short-term increases in particle pollution were associated with adverse health effects ranging from increased respiratory symptoms to increased hospitalization and emergency room visits, to increased mortality from respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

In 1993, a landmark study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine , which documented the significant risk to human life from long-term exposure to particle pollution. Called the Harvard Six City study, it looked at six small towns in the eastern U.S. and found clear evidence of the increased risk of premature death from the particle pollution in the most polluted city studied, compared to the cleanest.8 Two years later, another group of researchers using the large nationwide database of personal histories from the American Cancer Society, came to similar conclusions.9 Additional thorough reviews10 have left no room for doubt: particles are shortening human life at the levels seen in the United States today.

Particle pollution causes a broad range of health problems. Exposure worsens asthma and causes wheezing, coughing, and respiratory irritation in anyone with sensitive airways. It also triggers heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat) and premature death.

Because of its very small size, particle pollution gets right through the nasal passage, past the trachea and deep into the lungs. The smallest of the particles can even enter the bloodstream via the lungs.11

Health Effects continued...