US EPA

2347426 

Journal Article 

Characterizing spatial patterns of airborne coarse particulate (PM10-2.5) mass and chemical components in three cities: The multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis 

Zhang, K; Larson, TV; Gassett, A; Szpiro, AA; Daviglus, M; Burke, GL; Kaufman, JD; Adar, SD 

2014 

Yes 

Environmental Health Perspectives
ISSN: 0091-6765
EISSN: 1552-9924 

122 

8 

823-830 

English 

24642481 

10.1289/ehp.1307287 

WOS:000341713800017 

is supplemented by 3644761 Supplemental material:

BACKGROUND: The long-term health effects of coarse particular matter (PM10-2.5) are challenging to assess due to a limited understanding of the spatial variation in PM10-2.5 mass and its chemical components.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted a spatially intensive field study and developed spatial prediction models for PM10-2.5 mass and four selected species (copper, zinc, phosphorus and silicon) in three American cities.

METHODS: PM10-2.5 snapshot campaigns were conducted in Chicago, Illinois, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 2009 for the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Coarse Airborne Particulate Matter (MESA Coarse). In each city, samples were collected simultaneously outside the homes of approximately 40 participants during 2-week periods in the winter and/or summer. City-specific and combined prediction models were developed using land use regression (LUR) and universal kriging (UK). Model performance was evaluated by cross-validation (CV).

RESULTS: PM10-2.5 mass and species varied within and between cities in a manner that was predictable by geographic covariates. City-specific LUR models generally performed well for total mass (CV R(2), 0.41 to 0.68), copper (CV R(2), 0.51 to 0.86), phosphorus (CV R(2), 0.50 to 0.76), silicon (CV R(2), 0.48 to 0.93) and zinc (CV R(2), 0.36 to 0.73). Models pooled across all cities performed inconsistently at capturing within-city variability. Little difference was observed between the performance of LUR and UK models in predicting concentrations.

CONCLUSIONS: Characterization of fine-scale spatial variability of these often heterogeneous pollutants using geographic covariates should reduce exposure misclassification and increase the power of epidemiological studies investigating the long-term health impacts of PM10-2.5.