Fw: Re: Urgent Request for Information from your 2007 study

Pradeep Rajan 

to: 

Tricia Crabtree 

12/17/2010 02:49 PM 

Show Details 

Pradeep Rajan, ScD 

Ambient Standards Group 

Health and Environmental Impacts Division 

Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards 

U.S. EPA 

mail code: C504-06 

RTP, NC 27711 

office: 919-541-2580 

fax: 919-541-0237 

email: rajan.pradeep@epa.gov

-----Forwarded by Pradeep Rajan/RTP/USEPA/US on 12/17/2010 02:49PM ----- 

To: Pradeep Rajan/RTP/USEPA/US@EPA 

From: kamiller@u.washington.edu 

Date: 08/24/2010 01:34AM 

cc: joelk@uw.edu, Karen Martin/RTP/USEPA/US@EPA, Bryan Hubbell/RTP/USEPA/US@EPA, Beth 

Hassett-Sipple/RTP/USEPA/US@EPA 

Subject: Re: Urgent Request for Information from your 2007 study 

Dr. Pradeep, 

We appreciate the careful attention you and your colleagues are 

giving to this research and the opportunity to discuss issues 

related to our 2007 NEJM paper. 

Per your request, I prepared a table showing a list of the MSA's and 

the number of WHI subjects from each which were included in the main 

analyses. I hope this will be useful for your purposes. 

Unfortunately, as you have anticipated per our data used agreement I 

am not able to release data on the number of cardiovascular deaths 

by MSA without approval from oversight committees in the NHLBIsponsored WHI study. 

I would also draw your attention to Figure S1 in the supplementary 

appendix published with our paper, as I think this may also assist 

you in this inquiry. This figure, along with the number of 

participants by site, may provide a visual representation of the 

information you are seeking. It also turns out that, in responding 

to your inquiry, we detected a typographical error in the 

Page 1 of 4

file://C:\Documents and Settings\tcrabtre\Local Settings\Temp\notesFCBCEE\~web9775.... 12/21/2010
supplementary appendix document published online. The figure shows 

risk of CVD mortality (not including nonfatal events) and should be 

labeled “Figure S1. Fine Particulate Air Pollution and Risk of 

Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in Women, by Metropolitan Area.” 

The legend should say, “Using the lowest exposure city (Honolulu) as 

a reference, the figure shows the city-specific hazard ratio for 

cardiovascular disease mortality, adjusting for age, ethnicity, 

education, household income, smoking status, years smoked, 

cigarettes per day, diabetes, hypertension, systolic blood pressure, 

BMI, and h! 

 ypercholesterolemia. Indicator variables were included for each 

city.” Dr. Kaufman will be in contact with the Journal editorial 

staff to inform them of this correction. 

 

Further, may we remind you that in our study roughly half of the 

exposure heterogeneity comes from within-city exposure contrasts. So 

to get a more precise idea of the exposure distribution I would 

actually focus on individual exposure and not the city-average 

exposure. Thus I would direct you to the first row of Tables 1 and 

2, for the individual-level exposure range and number of subjects in 

each quintile and additional statistics for this exposure metric. A 

visual depiction of the same data is in the lower portion of Figure 

1a. It may be worth noting that 66% of the study population had 

annual average exposure less than the current regulatory standard of 

15 μg/m3. 

Best Regards, 

Kristin 

Kristin Miller 

Department of Epidemiology 

University of Washington 

Box 357236, Seattle WA 98195 

 On Fri, 20 Aug 2010, Rajan.Pradeep@epamail.epa.gov wrote: 

> 

> Dear Dr. Miller, 

> 

> 

> 

> Subsequent to our recent discussions with you regarding the 

confidence bounds associated with a PM2.5 concentration-response 

> function, we were asked by our CASAC to consider information on 

the concentrations that were most influential in generating the 

Page 2 of 4

file://C:\Documents and Settings\tcrabtre\Local Settings\Temp\notesFCBCEE\~web9775.... 12/21/2010
> health effect estimates reported in individual epidemiological 

studies. 

> 

> 

> 

> Consequently, we are interested in examining the distribution of 

PM2.5 concentrations in conjunction with the number of deaths 

> among the cohort members included in your published study “Longterm exposure to air pollution and incidence of cardiovascular 

> events in women.” 

> 

> 

> 

> Specifically, if available we are interested in receiving from you 

the MSA-specific number of deaths from cardiovascular disease 

> and the MSA-specific number of WHI participants for each of the 36 

MSAs included in your analysis across the entire study time 

> period. 

> 

> 

> If you find that is not feasible to provide us with the MSAspecific number of deaths we would appreciate receiving just the 

> MSA-specific number of study participants across the entire study 

period. 

> 

> 

> 

> We anticipate that this information would provide us with an 

understanding of the distribution of PM2.5 concentrations linked 

with 

> the health effect among your study population and therefore an 

indication of which PM2.5 concentrations are likely to be most 

> influential in generating the reported health effect estimates. 

> 

> 

> 

> Thanks in advance for your help! 

> 

> 

> 

> Pradeep Rajan 

> 

> 

> 

> Pradeep Rajan, ScD 

> Ambient Standards Group 

> Health and Environmental Impacts Division 

> Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards 

> U.S. EPA 

> mail code: C504-06 

Page 3 of 4

file://C:\Documents and Settings\tcrabtre\Local Settings\Temp\notesFCBCEE\~web9775.... 12/21/2010
> RTP, NC 27711 

> office: 919-541-2580 

> fax: 919-541-0237 

> email: rajan.pradeep@epa.gov 

> 

> 

> 

Page 4 of 4

file://C:\Documents and Settings\tcrabtre\Local Settings\Temp\notesFCBCEE\~web9775.... 12/21/2010