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14-3 Assessing Health Effects of Long-term Exposure to Low Levels of Ambient Air Pollution

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Number: 
RFA 14-3

HEI is seeking to fund studies to assess health effects of long-term exposure to low levels of ambient air pollution, including studies to evaluate all-cause and cause-specific mortality and morbidity endpoints. RFA 14-3 solicits studies to analyze and evaluate exposure-response function(s) for PM2.5 and other pollutants at levels currently prevalent in North America, Western Europe and other high-income regions and related questions about adverse health effects at low levels of ambient air pollution. In addition, RFA 14-3 solicits studies to develop methods required for, and specifically suited to, conducting such research. At the outset, HEI expects to fund a small number of large studies for up to 4 years. HEI also expects to fund some smaller-scale methods development studies. Fall 2014 RFA booklet

Read more about the studies funded under this RFA in this Program Summary.

How to Apply

This RFA is closed.

Ongoing studies funded under this RFA

Identifying the shape of the association between long-term exposure to low levels of ambient air pollution and the risk of mortality: An extension of the Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort using innovative data linkage and exposure methodology

Michael Brauer
, 

University of British Columbia, Canada

This study will investigate mortality effects of low levels of air pollution in Canada using Canadian Census data from about 6 million people. The shape of the exposure-response function will be characterized using newly developed flexible non-linear exposure-response functions. See also this Program Summary of HEI's research program on low levels of air pollution. 

Status: 
Ongoing
.  Read more...

Mortality and morbidity effects of long-term exposure to low-level PM2.5, Black Carbon, NO2 and O3: an analysis of European cohorts

Bert Brunekreef
, 

University of Utrecht

This study will investigate health effects of low levels of air pollution in Europe using pooled data from 10 ESCAPE cohorts with individual covariate information, and 6 large administrative cohorts with less detailed information; resulting in a study population of about 25 million people. See also this Program Summary of HEI's research program on low levels of air pollution. 

Status: 
Ongoing
.  Read more...

Assessing adverse health effects of long-term exposure to low levels of ambient pollution

Francesca Dominici
, 

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Antonella Zanobetti
, 

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

This study will examine health effects of low levels of air pollution in the US using data from about ~56 million people enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. In addition, they will develop new causal modeling methods to characterize the shape of the exposure-response function. See also this Program Summary of HEI's research program on low levels of air pollution. 

Status: 
Ongoing
.  Read more...

Publications from this RFA

Assessing Adverse Health Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Low Levels of Ambient Air Pollution: Phase 1

Research Report 200
Francesca Dominici
Joel Schwartz
Qian Di
Danielle Braun
Christine Choirat
Antonella Zanobetti
November 2019
Topics: 
Air Pollution
Multipollutant Mixtures
Particulate Matter
Statistical Methods

Research Report 200 describes the first-phase results of a study examining any association between exposure to low levels of air pollution — both PM2.5 and O3 — and all-cause mortality in a population of 61 million Medicare enrollees residing in the continental United States. The report also presents the detailed Commentary on the study by HEI’s Low-Exposure Epidemiology Studies Review Panel.

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Mortality–Air Pollution Associations in Low-Exposure Environments (MAPLE): Phase 1

Research Report 203
Michael Brauer
Jeffrey R Brook
Tanya Christidis
Yen Chu
Dan Crouse
Anders Erickson
Perry Hystad
Chi Li
Randall V. Martin
Jun Meng
Amanda J. Pappin
Lauren L. Pinault
Michael Tjepkema
Aaron van Donkelaar
Scott Weichenthal
Richard T Burnett
November 2019
Topics: 
Air Pollution
Multipollutant Mixtures
Particulate Matter

Research Report 203 describes the first-phase results of a study evaluating the relationship between long-term exposure to low concentrations of PM2.5 and non-accidental mortality, including a characterization of the shape of the concentration–response functions, in a large population-based cohort (~9 million adults) in Canada. The report also presents the detailed Commentary on the study by HEI’s Low-Exposure Epidemiology Studies Review Panel.

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