Re: Deaths from fossil fuel burning air pollution

["ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com>]

I have another thought about this sort of "prospective epidemiology" (if I
may coin a term).  Isn't epidemiology really (1) observing a health effect
in a population (e.g., polio), (2) THEN looking for a correlation (e.g.,
cases where there has been activity in crowded venues often involving water
(public drinking fountains, public swimming pools), and (3) FINALLY looking
for a cause (in this case, the polio virus)?  In these studies of "deaths"
from air pollutants and for that matter from small amounts of ionizing
radiation, isn't epidemiology being done backwards?  Don't we (1) identify
something that might have a health effect and (2) then look for a population
in which that health effect might occur, whether it is actually observed or
not?

Ruth Weiner
ruth_weiner@msn.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Otto G. Raabe <ograabe@ucdavis.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Friday, November 17, 2000 7:13 PM
Subject: Re: Deaths from fossil fuel burning air pollution


>
>
>Their many confounding factors that can affect an epidemiological study of
>this type that are not identified or controlled. Most particulate air
>pollution is ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate, salts of low if any
>toxicity. The most toxic air pollutants are gasses, not particles. The most
>harmful air pollutant in big cities is probably ozone produced from nitric
>oxide released by automobiles. There is virtually no sulfate released by
>automobiles. Was this considered in this study? Was there a control for
ozone?
>
>Also, particulate air pollution is correlated to atmospheric conditions
>such as inversions, barometric pressure changes, relative humidity, and
>sudden changes in temperature. These factors can alter death rates for sick
>people. Was there any control on these.
>
>I think that particulate matter has become an epidemiological scape goat
>for pollution effects.
>
>Otto
>**********************************************
>Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
>Institute of Toxicology & Environmental Health
>(Street Address: Bldg. 3792, Old Davis Road)
>University of California, Davis, CA 95616
>E-Mail: ograabe@ucdavis.edu
>Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140
>***********************************************
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