| 1. |
- Li, Longxiang, et al.
(författare)
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Exposure to unconventional oil and gas development and all-cause mortality in Medicare beneficiaries
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature Energy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2058-7546. ; 7:2, s. 177-185
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Little is known about whether exposure to unconventional oil and gas development is associated with higher mortality risks in the elderly and whether related air pollutants are exposure pathways. We studied a cohort of 15,198,496 Medicare beneficiaries (136,215,059 person-years) in all major US unconventional exploration regions from 2001 to 2015. We gathered data from records of more than 2.5 million oil and gas wells. For each beneficiary’s ZIP code of residence and year in the cohort, we calculated a proximity-based and a downwind-based pollutant exposure. We analysed the data using two methods: a Cox proportional hazards model and a difference-in-differences design. We found evidence of a statistically significant higher mortality risk associated with living in proximity to and downwind of unconventional oil and gas wells. Our results suggest that primary air pollutants sourced from unconventional oil and gas exploration can be a major exposure pathway with adverse health effects in the elderly.
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| 2. |
- Li, Longxiang, et al.
(författare)
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Ratios between Radon Concentrations in Upstairs and Basements : A Study in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States
- 2022
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Ingår i: Environmental Science and Technology Letters. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 2328-8930. ; 9:2, s. 191-197
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Temporally resolved assessment of residential exposure to radon is essential for investigating radon's acute health effects. Recent studies have used large numbers of short-term radon measurements to model the spatiotemporal variations in radon concentrations. However, most short-term radon measurements in the northeastern and midwestern United States were conducted in the basements, which were less frequently occupied and had higher average radon concentrations than the upstairs spaces. Disproportionate usage of basement radon measurements in exposure assessment potentially introduces misclassifications. In an effort to mitigate the issue, we investigated the spatiotemporal gradients in ratios between the radon concentrations in the upstairs and basements (hereafter upstairs/basement ratio). Building-specific ratios were calculated on the basis of 10774 pairs of simultaneous short-term measurements and then aggregated by state and season. We found that upstairs/basement ratios of northeastern states are generally lower than those of Midwestern states, a pattern also found in 3508 pairs of simultaneous long-term radon measurements. Ratios in winter are higher than those in other seasons. Our results, in conjunction with behavior data, can improve the assessment of short-term residential exposure to radon and therefore facilitate future studies regarding the acute health effects of radon.
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