Background
A critical question regarding the association between short-term exposure to ozone and mortality is the extent to which this relationship is confounded by ambient exposure to particles.
Objectives
We investigated whether particulate matter < 10 and < 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10 and PM2.5) is a confounder of the ozone and mortality association using data for 98 U.S. urban communities from 1987 to 2000.
Methods
We a) estimated correlations between daily ozone and daily PM concentrations stratified by ozone or PM levels; b) included PM as a covariate in time-series models; and c) included PM as a covariate as in d), but within a subset approach considering only days with ozone below a specified value.
Results
Analysis was hindered by data availability. In the 93 communities with PM10 data, only 25.0% of study days had data on both ozone and PM10. In the 91 communities with PM2.5 data, only 9.2% of days in the study period had data on ozone and PM2.5. Neither PM measure was highly correlated with ozone at any level of ozone or PM. National and community-specific effect estimates of the short-term effects of ozone on mortality were robust to inclusion of PM10 or PM2.5 in time-series models. The robustness remains even at low ozone levels (< 10 ppb) using a subset approach.
Conclusions
Results provide evidence that neither PM10 nor PM2.5 is a likely confounder of observed ozone and mortality relationships. Further investigation is needed to investigate potential confounding of the short-term effects of ozone on mortality by PM chemical composition.