Long-Term Exposure to PM2.5 Components and Cardiovascular Mortality in a Chinese Cohort

Few prior cohort studies exist in developing countries examining the association of ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) components with mortality. We examined the association of PM2.5 components with cardiovascular mortality in a prospective cohort study of 61,768 participants in 161 Chinese cities. Baseline data were obtained during 2010-2010. The participants were followed up from 2011 to 2015. Annual average concentrations of PM2.5 components between 2011 and 2015, including elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), sulphate (SO42-), nitrate (NO3-) and ammonium (NH4+), were estimated by the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. As the results, we found significant associations between PM2.5 and mortality from cardiovascular diseases; each 10 μg/m3 PM2.5 was associated with a 2.8% (95CI: 0.7%, 4.8%), 3.2% (95CI: -0.3%, 6.8%) and 4.6% (95CI: 1.8%, 7.5%) increased risk of cardiovascular, coronary heart disease and stroke mortality, respectively. An interquartile range (IQR) increase of EC, OC, SO42-, NO3- and NH4+ were associated with 17.7% (95CI: 7.8%, 28.5%), 16.6% (95CI: 6.1%, 28.2%), 3.8% (95CI: -6.2%,14.8%), 26.7% (95CI: 10.6%,45.2%), and 17.8% (95CI: 4.3%, 33.0%) increase of cardiovascular mortality, respectively. Conclusively, these data contribute to the scientific literature on long-term effects of particulate air pollution for high exposure settings typical in developing countries.