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Fine particulate matter and incident coronary heart disease events up to 10 years of follow-up among Deepwater Horizon oil spill workers
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Fine particulate matter and incident coronary heart disease events up to 10 years of follow-up among Deepwater Horizon oil spill workers

Dazhe Chen, Dale P. Sandler, Alexander P. Keil, Gerardo Heiss, Eric A. Whitsel, Gregory C. Pratt, Patricia A. Stewart, Mark R. Stenzel, Caroline P. Groth, Sudipto Banerjee, …
Environmental research, v 217, 114841
17 Nov 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.114841
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.114841View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Air pollution Coronary heart disease Myocardial infarction Oil spill Particulate matter PM2.5
During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster, in-situ burning and flaring were conducted to remove oil from the water. Workers near combustion sites were potentially exposed to burning-related fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Exposure to PM2.5 has been linked to increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), but no study has examined the relationship among oil spill workers. To investigate the association between estimated PM2.5 from burning/flaring of oil/gas and CHD risk among the DWH oil spill workers. We included workers who participated in response and cleanup activities on the water during the DWH disaster (N = 9091). PM2.5 exposures were estimated using a job-exposure matrix that linked modelled PM2.5 concentrations to detailed DWH spill work histories provided by participants. We ascertained CHD events as the first self-reported physician-diagnosed CHD or a fatal CHD event that occurred after each worker's last day of burning exposure. We estimated hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) for the associations between categories of average or cumulative daily maximum PM2.5 exposure (versus a referent category of water workers not near controlled burning) and subsequent CHD. We assessed exposure-response trends by examining continuous exposure parameters in models. We observed increased CHD hazard among workers with higher levels of average daily maximum exposure (low vs. referent: HR = 1.26, 95% CI: 0.93, 1.70; high vs. referent: HR = 2.11, 95% CI: 1.08, 4.12; per 10 μg/m3 increase: HR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.19). We also observed suggestively elevated HRs among workers with higher cumulative daily maximum exposure (low vs. referent: HR = 1.19, 95% CI: 0.68, 2.08; medium vs. referent: HR = 1.38, 95% CI: 0.88, 2.16; high vs. referent: HR = 1.44, 95% CI: 0.96, 2.14; per 100 μg/m3-d increase: HR = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.05). Among oil spill workers, exposure to PM2.5 from flaring/burning of oil/gas was associated with increased risk of CHD. •In the Deepwater Horizon disaster, controlled burning of oil/gas produced PM2.5.•Many oil spill workers were exposed to PM2.5 levels above the EPA's daily standard.•PM2.5 exposure was linked to higher risk of coronary heart disease among workers.•Increase in heart disease risk persisted up to 10 years after the burning exposure.

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9 Record Views
14 citations in Web of Science
13 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being
#11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

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Collaboration types
Industry collaboration
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Web of Science research areas
Environmental Sciences
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
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