title: Estimating Acute Cardiorespiratory Effects of Ambient Volatile Organic Compounds.
abstract: The health effects of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have received less attention in epidemiologic studies than other commonly measured ambient pollutants. In this study, we estimated acute cardiorespiratory effects of ambient VOCs in an urban population.
  
  
  
  Daily concentrations of 89 VOCs were measured at a centrally-located ambient monitoring site in Atlanta and daily counts of emergency department visits for cardiovascular diseases and asthma in the five-county Atlanta area were obtained for the 1998-2008 period. To understand the health effects of the large number of species, we grouped these VOCs a priori by chemical structure and estimated the associations between VOC groups and daily counts of emergency department visits in a time-series framework using Poisson regression. We applied three analytic approaches to estimate the VOC group effects: an indicator pollutant approach, a joint effect analysis, and a random effect meta-analysis, each with different assumptions. We performed sensitivity analyses to evaluate copollutant confounding.
  
  
  
  Hydrocarbon groups, particularly alkenes and alkynes, were associated with emergency department visits for cardiovascular diseases, while the ketone group was associated with emergency department visits for asthma.
  
  
  
  The associations observed between emergency department visits for cardiovascular diseases and alkenes and alkynes may reflect the role of traffic exhaust, while the association between asthma visits and ketones may reflect the role of secondary organic compounds. The different patterns of associations we observed for cardiovascular diseases and asthma suggest different modes of action of these pollutants or the mixtures they represent.
authors.affiliation: From the aDepartment of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; bDepartment of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; cDepartment of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; dSchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA; and eAtmospheric Research & Analysis, Inc., Cary, NC.
authors.forename: Dongni
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Mitchel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Howard H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Jeremy A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Sarnat
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Mulholland
authors.forename: Eric S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Edgerton
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Winquist
authors.forename: Paige E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Tolbert
authors.forename: Stefanie Ebelt
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Sarnat
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000475:Alkenes; D000480:Alkynes; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007659:Ketones; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D012044:Regression Analysis; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000475:Alkenes; D000480:Alkynes; D007659:Ketones; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds