Author(s)

A. Rabl

Abstract

Mortality due to air pollution: how to interpret the results AriRabl Ecole des Mines, 60 boul. St.-Michel, Paris Abstract This paper explains why the number of deaths is not appropriate for causes of death that are merely a contributing rather than identifiable; only LLE (loss of life expectancy) is a meaningful indicator for the total impact of air pollution. Short term (time series) studies provide only information on a change in the number of deaths per day, without any information on the corresponding LLE, by contrast to long term (cohort) studies which yield a change in age specific mortality from which LLE can be calculated using life table data. If one multiplies the number of deaths found by short term studies by an assumed loss per death, one finds that the implied LLE only a very small fraction of the loss implied by long term studies. Results are shown for the LLE from exposure to a pulse of PM^, as implied by the long term study of adults published by Pope et al

Keywords