Air Pollution and Mortality in China: Results of Recent Cohort Studies.

Aaron Cohen, DSc, MPH Consulting Scientist, Health Effects Institute (HEI), Boston Affiliate Professor of Global Health, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington. Patrick Kinney, ScD Beverly Brown Professor of Urban Health Department of Environmental Health, BUSPH Seminar Summary: The Global Burden of Disease project recently estimated that long-term exposure to ambient fine particles – PM2.5 –was the fourth leading risk factor for mortality in China in 2015, after high blood pressure, high sodium diet and tobacco smoking (GBD 2015 Risk Factor Collaborators The Lancet 2016; Cohen AJ et al. The Lancet 2017). These estimates were based on extrapolating the results of cohort studies in high-income North America and Europe, absent direct evidence from Chinese studies. But with the advent of the Chinese nationwide PM2.5 air pollution monitoring network in 2013 and the availability of satellite-based estimates, new cohort studies are now being conducted. This seminar will present the results of two such studies conducted with Chinese collaborators. Speaker Bios: Aaron J Cohen is Consulting Scientist at the Health Effects Institute (HEI) in Boston, MA. Prior to his retirement from HEI in May 2016 Dr. Cohen led for 26 years HEI’s US and international epidemiologic research programs on the adverse effects of air pollution. Past HEI responsibilities included the organization and management of epidemiologic research projects such as the Reanalysis of the American Cancer Society and Six-City studies of air pollution and mortality, and multi- city time-series studies of air pollution and daily mortality in Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America. He led HEI’s 2004 and 2010 reviews of the literature on the health effects of air pollution in the developing countries of Asia, and initiated, and currently co-coordinates, HEI’s Health Outcomes Research program, which assesses the health impacts of actions taken to improve air quality. Since 1999 Dr. Cohen has served as a Temporary Advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) on the evaluation of epidemiologic evidence, air pollution health impact assessment, and air quality guideline development and has served as a member of International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) working groups on diesel exhaust and outdoor air pollution. He co-chaired the Expert Groups that produced estimates of the global burden of disease due to Urban Air Pollution in 2000 and Ambient Air Pollution for the Global Burden of Disease 2010 project and is a member of the Core Analytic Team of the Global Burden of Disease project. Epidemiology is Dr. Cohen’s second career. He is also a Registered Respiratory Therapist (AS and BS, Northeastern University), and worked for 15 years in newborn intensive care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and subsequently as Research Associate in Perinatal Epidemiology, conducting epidemiologic and clinical research on neonatal respiratory disease, and the evaluation of related medical technologies. Dr. Cohen holds a D.Sc. in Epidemiology (1991), and Masters in Public Health (1985) from the Boston University School of Public Health, where he is adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental Health. He is also Affiliate Professor of Global Health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Patrick Kinney is the Beverly A. Brown Professor of Urban Health and Sustainability at Boston University. His teaching and research address issues at the intersection of global environmental change, human health, and policy, with an emphasis on the public health impacts of climate change and air pollution. At BU, Dr. Kinney’s work focuses on assessing health impacts of air pollution and climate extremes in cities, and the health and climate co-benefits that can be achieved through carefully-planned mitigation and adaptation strategies. Dr. Kinney earned his doctorate at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he studied the effects of air pollution on lung function among children as part of the Harvard Six Cities Air Pollution and Health Study.