| Effect of Outdoor Airborne Particulate Matter on Daily Death Counts
Patricia Styer,1 Nancy McMillan,1 Feng Gao,2 Jerry Davis,1,3 and Jerome Sacks1
1National Institute of Statistical Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-4162 USA
2Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Richland, WA 99352 USA
3Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8208 USA
Abstract
To investigate the possible relationship between airborne particulate matter and mortality, we developed regression models of daily mortality counts using meteorological covariates and measures of outdoor PM10. Our analyses included data from Cook County, Illinois, and Salt Lake County, Utah. We found no evidence that particulate matter  10 µm (PM10) contributes to excess mortality in Salt Lake County, Utah. In Cook County, Illinois, we found evidence of a positive PM10 effect in spring and autumn, but not in winter and summer. We conclude that the reported effects of particulates on mortality are unconfirmed. Key words: causal inference, model selection, observational data, PM10, Poisson regression, semi-parametric modeling. Environ Health Perspect 103:490-497(1995)
Address correpondence to J. Sacks, National Institute of Statistical Sciences, PO Box 14162, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-4162 USA. This research was supported in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under cooperative agreement CR819638-01-0 and by a National Science Foundation Grant (DMS-9208758) . Received 27 October 1994 ; accepted 15 February 1995.
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