Updated Mortality Study Summary

The number of volunteers Who participated in the tests did not change. However, the reporting of 1,454 additional tests by the Army has changed the numbers of men in the various groups used in the mortality comparisons (Table B-2). The number of men who participated only in tests of equipment (no chemical exposure) decreased from 1,719 to 1,587. The number of men exposed to each class of chemicals, except the unclassifiable, increased the numbers of participants exposed only to the cholinesterase reactivators, the irritants and vesicants, and the LSD derivatives increased and numbers of participants exposed only to the anticholinesterases and the anticholinergics decreased. 

Numbers of Test Exposures Reported to the Army Initially and in Revision 

Type of Exposure Initial Report Revised Report Chanee No. a % 

Numbers of Test Subjects Included in First and Second Mortality Analysesa 

Tvue of Exoosure Total Only Not Onlv Total Onlv Not Onlv 

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The WHO task group used the updated estimates for those studies with reanalyzed data. Estimates of the effeet of PMio on all-cause mortality were taken from 33 separate European cities or regions. The summary relative risks of all cause deaths, deaths from cardiovascular and from respiratory causes for these 33 results is shown in Eig. 3. 21 of theses estimates were taken from the APHEA 2 study (Katsouyanni et al. 2001) and hence the summary estimate derived from this review is dominated by this multicity study. There were no cause specific mortality data available from the APHEA project at the time of met analysis and the summary risk estimate for cause specific mortality was calculated on the basis of 17 multicity studies mainly conducted in France, Italy and Spain. Therefore care has to be taken interpreting the differences in the risk estimates. The estimates for all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality taken from European studies are comparable to those reported from the NMMAPS based upon the 20 largest cities in the United States (Samet et al. 2000a) (Fig. 3). Air pollution risk estimates were relatively robust to different modeling approaches (Samoli et al. 2008). 

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