FAIRBANKS — A new study offers further proof that air pollution, including fine particles caused by vehicle exhaust and wood stove emissions, is making people sick.

“Long-Term Ozone Exposure and Mortality” appeared in the March 12 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.The study primarily looked at ozone, a key component of smog, but also confirmed that breathing air polluted with fine particles, or PM 2.5, can lead to heart and lung problems, and an early death.“We knew that, but it’s nice to have the confirmation,” said Cathy Cahill, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a member of the Fairbanks North Star Borough’s Air Pollution Control Commission.

“They are showing that particulate matter is hazardous to your health,” Cahill said. “It does increase your risk of death.”PM 2.5 is particulate matter 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller.The air in Fairbanks sometimes carries harmful concentrations of PM 2.5.

Fairbanks has exceeded the federal government’s limits for the particulate matter 24 times so far this winter, Fairbanks North Star Borough Air Quality Specialist Jim Conner said.The last time the municipality issued an air advisory, suggesting the young, the old and people in bad health stay indoors, was on Feb. 5, Conner said.

In the study, researchers cross-referenced health data involving nearly a half a million people with information from Environmental Protection Agency pollution monitors.

In an 18-year follow-up period, 48,884 of the people in the study died from cardiovascular causes such as heart disease and strokes, and 9,891 died from respiratory causes, according to a statement from the University of California, Berkeley. The study’s lead researcher is an associate professor at the university’s School of Public Health.

Previous studies have outlined the health problems associated with PM 2.5, but this study is one of the weightiest, Cahill said.

Lori Verbrugge, the state’s Environmental Public Health Program Manager, called the study “pretty convincing.”

Legislation is pending that would offer tax incentives to people who change their home heating systems to help reduce the levels of PM 2.5.

The EPA is requiring Fairbanks to somehow curtail levels of the toxic pollutant by 2014.