Abstract
BackgroundAcrolein is an air toxic and highly potent respiratory irritant. There is little epidemiology available, but US EPA estimates that outdoor acrolein is responsible for about 75 percent of non-cancer respiratory health effects attributable to air toxics in the United States, based on the Agency's 2005 NATA (National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment) and acrolein's comparatively potent inhalation reference concentration of 0.02 µg/m3.ObjectivesAssess the association between estimated outdoor acrolein exposure and asthma attack reported by a representative cross-sectional sample of the adult United States population.MethodsNATA 2005 chronic outdoor acrolein exposure estimates at the census tract were linked with residences oif adults (≥18 years old) in the NHIS (National Health Interview Survey) 2000 – 2009 (n = 271,348 subjects). A sample-weighted logistic regression model characterized the association between the prevalence of reporting at least one asthma attack in the 12 months prior to survey interview and quintiles of exposure to outdoor acrolein, controlling for potential confounders.ResultsIn the highest quintile of outdoor acrolein exposure (0.05 – 0.46 µg/m3), there was a marginally significant increase in the asthma attack pOR (prevalence-odds ratio [95% CI] = 1.08 [0.98∶1.19]) relative to the lowest quintile. The highest quintile was also associated with a marginally significant increase in prevalence-odds (1.13 [0.98∶1.29]) in a model limited to never smokers (n = 153,820).ConclusionsChronic exposure to outdoor acrolein of 0.05 – 0.46 µg/m3 appears to increase the prevalence-odds of having at least one asthma attack in the previous year by 8 percent in a representative cross-sectional sample of the adult United States population.
Highlights
Acrolein is among the 189 pollutants designated under the 1990 Clean Air Act [1] to be a hazardous air pollutant known to or suspected of causing cancer or other serious health problems
The NATA process concludes with estimation of cancer and non-cancer public health risks [64], but for the analyses reported here only the acrolein inhalation exposure concentrations estimated at the census tract level were used
This study evaluated the cross-sectional prevalence of having at least one self-reported asthma attack in the 12 months prior to each subject’s interview, which represented affirmative answers to both NHIS questions ‘‘Have you ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that you had asthma?’’ and ‘‘During the past 12 months, have you had an episode of asthma or an asthma attack?’’ This definition identifies subjects with symptomatic asthma and is the standard CDC definition for evaluating asthma attack prevalence [55]
Summary
Acrolein is among the 189 pollutants designated under the 1990 Clean Air Act [1] to be a hazardous air pollutant (or air toxic) known to or suspected of causing cancer or other serious health problems. Acrolein is ubiquitous in the environment, and since it is formed through the combustion of petroleum (especially diesel fuel), acrolein is a concern for mobile sources, aircraft, and industrial boilers [12]. Another major component of mobile emissions — 1,3-butadiene — oxidizes in the atmosphere to acrolein, further augmenting acrolein’s presence in the environment. There is little epidemiology available, but US EPA estimates that outdoor acrolein is responsible for about 75 percent of non-cancer respiratory health effects attributable to air toxics in the United States, based on the Agency’s 2005 NATA (National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment) and acrolein’s comparatively potent inhalation reference concentration of 0.02 mg/m3
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