Early-life exposure to PM2.5 constituents and childhood asthma and wheezing: Findings from China, Children, Homes, Health study

• DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107297
• Publication Date: 2022-05-15T13:34:35Z
• Authors: Yuanyuan Zhang; Zhouxin Yin; Peixuan Zhou; Liansheng Zhang; Zhuohui Zhao; Dan Norbäck; Xin Zhang; Chan Lu; Wei Yu; Tingting Wang; Xiaohong Zheng; Ling Zhang; Yunquan Zhang
• Keywords: Respiratory sounds

Emerging evidence suggests that early-life (in-utero and first-year since birth) exposure to ambient PM2.5 is a risk factor for asthma onset exacerbation among children, while the hazards caused by compositions remain largely unknown. To examine potential associations of exposures mass its major chemical constituents with childhood wheezing. By conducting Phase II China, Children, Homes, Health study, we investigated 30,325 preschool children aged 3–6 years during 2019–2020 in mainland China. Early-life (i.e., black carbon [BC], organic matter [OM], nitrate, ammonium, sulfate) were calculated based on monthly estimates at 1 km × resolution from satellite-based models. We adopted novel quantile-based g-computation approach assess effect mixture asthma/wheezing. The average concentrations in-utero first year birth 64.7 ± 10.6 61.8 10.5 µg/m3, respectively. significantly associated increased risks wheezing, no evident compositions-wheezing found year. Each quintile increases all five components utero was accordingly an odds ratio 1.18 [95% confidence interval: 1.07–1.29] 1.08 [1.01–1.16] BC, OM SO42− contributed more wheezing than other early life, wherein effects BC only observed pregnancy. Sex subgroup analyses suggested stronger girls asthma. PM2.5, particularly SO42−, are