Is there evidence for synergy among air pollutants in causing health effects?
Environmental air pollutants are inhaled as complex mixtures, but the long dominant focus of monitoring and research on individual pollutants has provided modest insight into pollutant interactions that may be important to health. Trends toward managing multiple pollutants to maximize aggregate health gains place increasing value on knowing whether the effects of combinations of pollutants are greater than the sum of the effects of individual pollutants (synergy). The reviewed selected published literature to determine whether synergistic effects of combinations of pollutants on health outcomes have actually been demonstrated.