Long-term exposure to elemental carbon and disease incidence: a systematic review and meta-analysis

作者：Maria‐Iosifina Kasdagli, Dimitris Stamatiou, Antonis Analitis, Klea Katsouyanni, Mihalis Lazaridis, Maria I. Gini, Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Evangelia Samoli · 发表于：Environmental Health · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1186/s12940-025-01209-z · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Air Quality and Health Impacts、Health, Environment, Cognitive Aging、Energy and Environment Impacts

INTRODUCTION: Epidemiological studies have documented the health effects of long-term exposure to fine particulate matter, while there is a growing number of studies looking into associations with one of its main components elemental carbon (EC) and its related metrics such as black carbon (BC), black smoke (BS) or aerosol light absorption coefficient often referred as "PM absorbance". We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis on the associations between long-term exposure to elemental carbon (EC) and disease incidence. METHODS: We searched for studies published up to April 2025, assessing long-term to EC-related exposure (also including BC, BS, PM absorbance) and incidence of ischemic heart disease (IHD), asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer in adults, and asthma and acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) in children. We pooled effect estimates by random-effects models and investigated heterogeneity by region and risk of bias assessments. The certainty of the evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment Development approach. RESULTS: increase in EC was 1.10 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04, 1.17), 1.11 (95% CI: 1.00, 1.05), for incidence of lung cancer and IHD in adults, while a null association was observed for COPD risk. We estimated RR 1.06 (95% CI: 0.94, 1.21) and 1.37 (95% CI: 0.89, 2.04) for asthma and ALRI in children respectively. There was moderate to high heterogeneity in all associations, with...