Ozone Air Pollution and Premature Death
Today the National Academies of Science released a report on links between Ozone Exposure and Premature Motality. The crux of the information is in Chapter 5, which explains the biological plausibility and the problems with analyses of previous studies comparing cities and even countries, over time. Ozone can be seriously considered as an adverse contributor to chronic heart and lung disease, but while it is possible to describe associations there are so many confounding variables and demographic differences between the various study groups, and changes in variables such as obesity and lack of exercise over time make it is very difficult to separate out the effect of ozone from all the other contributors to early mortality. Much more definitive research is needed. There is no test that identifies the contribution of ozone to death from chronic heart and lung diseases.
