National Morbidity, Mortality, and Air Pollution Study. Part I: Methods and Methodologic Issues

In an effort to address the uncertainties regarding the association between PM and daily mortality, and to determine the effects of other pollutants on this association, HEI funded the National Morbidity, Mortality, and Air Pollution Study (NMMAPS). Dr Jonathan Samet and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University, in collaboration with investigators at Harvard University, conducted this time-series study in large cities across the US where levels of PM and gaseous pollutants were varied. To conduct such a study, and to begin to address issues of exposure measurement error and mortality displacement, new analytic methods were developed, as described in Part I, the first of a four part series.