A study of 592 children found that recent exposure to airborne particles was associated with a greater risk of elevated or high systolic blood pressure.
Researchers followed 592 children who were enrolled at ages 6 to 8 and had blood pressure measured up to five times between 2019 and 2022. They estimated exposure to two types of airborne particles using residential locations and nearby air-quality monitors: fine particles known as PM2.5 and larger particles known as PM10.
Higher particle exposure over the previous 12 months was associated with small increases in blood pressure. Short-term exposure over the previous seven days was associated with a higher risk of elevated or high systolic blood pressure, the pressure recorded when the heart beats.
What the study found
In adjusted analyses, an increase of 38 days in the previous year with daily average PM10 above 50 micrograms per cubic meter was associated with a 1.1 mmHg increase in diastolic blood pressure and a 0.9 mmHg increase in systolic blood pressure. These figures represent the difference associated with an interquartile-range increase in exposure.
Children in the highest quartile of short-term exposure had a 5.8 percentage point higher risk of elevated or high systolic blood pressure for PM2.5 and a 5.9 percentage point higher risk for PM10, compared with children in the lowest exposure quartile. Overall, three in 10 children had at least one blood pressure reading classified as elevated or hypertensive. Short-term particle exposure was not associated with continuous blood pressure after adjustment for other factors, but it remained associated with the risk category for systolic blood pressure.
Evidence and caveats
This was an observational study, so the associations do not by themselves show that particulate matter caused the changes in blood pressure. Researchers estimated exposure from residential addresses linked to regulatory monitors rather than measuring each child’s personal exposure. The study included 592 children in a rural California border region, most of whom were Hispanic, so the results may not apply to all children or regions. Most elevated or high readings involved systolic rather than diastolic blood pressure, leaving too few elevated diastolic readings to analyze exposure-related risk for that measure. Short-term exposure was also not associated with continuous blood pressure after adjustment, even though it was associated with the risk of elevated or high systolic blood pressure.
// Source
International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health · 2026 · DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2026.114923
Authors: Elizabeth M. Kamai, Dayane Dueñas Barahona, Sandrah Proctor Eckel, Luís Olmedo, Esther Bejarano, Christian Torres, Christopher Zuidema, Edmund Seto, Jill E. Johnston, Shohreh F. Farzan
Institutions: University of Washington, University of Southern California
