Long-term exposure to ambient ozone at workplace is positively and non-linearly associated with incident hypertension and blood pressure: longitudinal evidence from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei medical examination cohort

BACKGROUND: There is limited longitudinal evidence on the hypertensive effects of long-term exposure to ambient O(3). We investigated the association between long-term O(3) exposure at workplace and incident hypertension, diastolic blood pressure (DBP), systolic blood pressure (SBP), pulse pressure (PP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) in general working adults. METHODS: We conducted a cohort study by recruiting over 30,000 medical examination attendees through multistage stratified cluster sampling. Participants completed a standard questionnaire and comprehensive medical examination. Three-year ambient O(3) concentrations at each employed participant’s workplace were estimated using a two-stage machine learning model. Mixed-effects Cox proportional hazards models and linear mixed-effects models were used to examine the effect of O(3) concentrations on incident hypertension and blood pressure parameters, respectively. Generalized additive mixed models were used to explore non-linear concentration-response relationships. RESULTS: A total of 16,630 hypertension-free working participants at baseline finished the follow-up. The mean (SD) O(3) exposure was 45.26 (2.70) ppb. The cumulative incidence of hypertension was 7.11 (95% CI: 6.76, 7.47) per 100 person-years. Long-term O(3) exposure was independently, positively and non-linearly associated with incident hypertension (Hazard ratios (95% CI) for Q2, Q3, and Q4 were 1.77 (1.34, 2.36), 2.06 (1.42, 3.00) and 3.43 (2.46, 4.79), respectively, as compared with the first quartile (Q1)), DBP (β (95% CI) was 0.65 (0.01, 1.30) for Q2, as compared to Q1), SBP (β (95% CI) was 2.88 (2.00, 3.77), 2.49 (1.36, 3.61) and 2.61 (1.64, 3.58) for Q2, Q3, and Q4, respectively), PP (β (95% CI) was 2.12 (1.36, 2.87), 2.03 (1.18, 2.87) and 2.14 (1.38, 2.90) for Q2, Q3, and Q4, respectively), and MAP (β (95% CI) was 1.39 (0.76, 2.02), 1.04 (0.24, 1.84) and 1.12 (0.43, 1.82) for Q2, Q3, and Q4, respectively). The associations were robust across sex, age, BMI, and when considering PM(2.5) and NO(2). CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first cohort study in the general population that demonstrates the non-linear hypertensive effects of long-term O(3) exposure. The findings are particularly relevant for policymakers and researchers involved in ambient pollution and public health, supporting the integration of reduction of ambient O(3) into public health interventions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-16932-w.