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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

differential interpretations, air pollution, health, funding sources

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Economics

Abstract

The main goal of this research project was to discover whether or not results attained in epidemiology studies assessing the increased risk of mortality attributable to air pollution, are influenced by funding source or affiliation of the authors. This study was motivated by public policy debate regarding evidence from ongoing research on the mortality effects of particulate air pollution. New research is constantly being performed and reviewed and changes are being made to improve regulations on air pollution. Well over a thousand research articles have been written and published over the past 25 years on the adverse health effects of air pollution. The majority have reported significant and adverse associations between air pollution and health. There are, however, a minority of articles that report no adverse association between air pollution and health and that reducing air pollution levels only increases monetary costs without any improvements to health. This research project hypothesized that there are differential interpretations of the existence of air pollution effects in articles depending on funding sources and authorship.

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