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Particle Pollution and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in the United States
A recently published peer-reviewed study (Woodruff et al. 1997) found a statistically significant relationship between particulate air pollution in the Unied States and postneonatal infant mortality. Postneonatal mortality was defined as infant death that occurred between the age of 28 to 364 days. The study analyzed the relationship between PM10 levels and postneonatal mortality within a population of approximately 4 million infants born in 86 metropolitan areas in the United States between 1989 and 1991 (Woodruff et al. 1997).
Based on the risk factors derived by Woodruff and colleagues (1997), the Environmental Working Group and Physicians for Social Responsibility estimated the number of SIDS cases each year associated with airborne particle pollution (PM10). We estimate that about 500 SIDS cases each year in the United States are associated with airborne particle pollution.
Within the next two weeks, the EPA will finalize new regulations that will cut air pollution levels in half over the next ten years, including the particle air pollution associated with SIDS in the Woodruff study. EPA estimates that these microscopic airborne particles (PM10) penetrate deep into the lungs and cause 35,000 premature deaths in the United States each year. Influential members of Congress have threatened to overturn the new regulations, and polluting industries are waging an all-out fight to block the new health standards.
The relationship between SIDS cases and PM10 was used to predict SIDS mortality in metropolitan areas in the United States. Nearly one out of every five SIDS cases in the top twelve metro areas are associated with particle air pollution (PM10) (Table 1). The greater Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago metropolitan areas lead the nation in SIDS cases linked to airborne particle pollution with an estimated 44, 28 and 27 SIDS cases associated with microscopic airborne articles, so-called PM10, each year.
Airborne particle pollution (PM10) in just ten states is associated with more than 300 of the estimated 500 SIDS cases linked nationwide to PM10 each year. California tops the list with an estimated 93 SIDS cases associated with airborne toxic particles, followed by Texas and Illinois, with 37 and 32, respectively.