COMPARING DIFFERENT EXPOSURE MEASURES OF TRAFFIC-RELATED POLLUTION: A STUDY OF TERM LOW BIRTH WEIGHT IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

Background and Aims: Few birth outcomes studies have examined associations with air toxics in traffic exhaust, such as benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylene (BTEX). Additionally, land use-based regression (LUR) provides estimates of small area variation in air pollution and contributes to an understanding of the spatial distribution of traffic-related air pollution. We compare effect estimates for term low birth weight (LBW) based on LUR-modeled estimates, and criteria pollutant and air toxics data. Methods: We included births from 1/1/1995-12/31/2006 to women residing within 5 miles of a California Air Resources Board air toxics monitoring station in Los Angeles County, California. LUR-modeled estimates of NO, NO2 and NOx based on >200 field measurements were seasonalized using monitoring station data, and extracted for geocoded residential addresses. We examined associations with term LBW (≤37 weeks completed gestation and <2500g birth weight) using logistic regression adjusted for maternal age, r...