Airborne chloride exposure and benign prostatic hyperplasia risk

Given that airborne chloride (Cl⁻), is an understudied component of particulate matter that may drive oxidative and inflammatory pathways, yet its long-term association with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) remains unknown. We aimed to investigate the association between exposure to airborne chloride and the risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia among middle-aged and older Chinese men.

We utilized nationally representative data from 5,452 males aged 45 years and older in the 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) and correlated it with province-level chloride exposure estimates from the China High Air Pollutants (CHAP) dataset. Mixed-effects logistic regression models incorporating province-level random intercepts were employed. Elevated ambient Cl⁻ exposure was consistently linked to heightened risks of BPH in both unadjusted and fully adjusted models. In the comprehensively adjusted model, each 1 µg/m³ increment in Cl⁻ correlated with a 26% rise in the risks of BPH (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.07-1.49; p < 0.05). The robustness and temporal consistency of the findings were confirmed by sensitivity analyses that employed Z-score standardized Cl⁻ and lagged exposures from 2013 to 2015. These results suggest airborne chloride may be a novel environmental risk factor for BPH.