Air Quality Guidelines Global Update 2005 - World Health ...

SULFUR DIOXIDE
mortality. This was consistent with the extended analysis of the original ACS
data (1982–1988 follow-up period) carried out by Krewski et al. (59). The 2004
study by Pope et al. (63) analysed more specific cardiovascular causes from the
1982–1998 follow-up data and found associations between PM2.5 and IHD, dysrhythmias,
heart failure and cardiac arrest, but sulfur dioxide and other pollutants
were not examined.
Another large American cohort study, the Adventist Health Study of Smog
(AHSMOG), followed a cohort of over 6000 non-smoking Californian Seventh
Day Adventists from 1977. The AHSMOG study (64) analysed the 1977–1992
follow-up period. PM10 was associated with non-malignant respiratory disease as
well as with lung cancer in males. Sulfur dioxide was associated with lung cancer
for both males and females. However, the number of cases of lung cancer in this
study was relatively small (18 for males and 12 for female) and thus interpretation
of these results requires caution (38).
Lung function changes
These effects have generally been assessed using measurements of ventilatory
capacity such as FEV0.75, FEV1, forced vital capacity (FVC) and peak expiratory
flow (PEF) (3). Small effects on lung function have been observed at low levels
of exposure (