An Association between Air Pollution and Mortality in Six U.S. Cities

Several cross-sectional investigations have found associations between mortality rates and particulate air pollution in U.S. metropolitan areas 1 – 3 . A recent study reported associations between infant mortality and particulate air pollution in the Czech Republic 4 . These studies have often been criticized because they did not control directly for cigarette smoking or other covariates. Recent daily time-series studies, which are likely to be free of confounding by individual characteristics, have reported associations between daily mortality rates and changes in air pollution, specifically particulate pollution, in London 5 and in several cities in the United States 6 – 12 . Particulate air pollution is . . .