About the Authors

Esther Rodríguez

estherod@vhebron.net

Affiliations Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES). Instituto Nacional de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

Jaume Ferrer

Affiliations Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES). Instituto Nacional de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

Jan-Paul Zock

Affiliations Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain, Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital del Mar-IMIM, Barcelona, Spain, CIBER Epidemiologia y Salud Pública (CIBERESP). Instituto Nacional de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

Ignasi Serra

Affiliations Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain, Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital del Mar-IMIM, Barcelona, Spain, CIBER Epidemiologia y Salud Pública (CIBERESP). Instituto Nacional de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

Josep M. Antó

Affiliations Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain, Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital del Mar-IMIM, Barcelona, Spain, CIBER Epidemiologia y Salud Pública (CIBERESP). Instituto Nacional de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

Jordi de Batlle

Affiliations Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain, Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital del Mar-IMIM, Barcelona, Spain, CIBER Epidemiologia y Salud Pública (CIBERESP). Instituto Nacional de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

Hans Kromhout

Affiliation Enviromental and Occupational Health Division, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Roel Vermeulen

Affiliation Enviromental and Occupational Health Division, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands

David Donaire-González

Affiliations Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain, Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital del Mar-IMIM, Barcelona, Spain, CIBER Epidemiologia y Salud Pública (CIBERESP). Instituto Nacional de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

Marta Benet

Affiliations Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain, Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital del Mar-IMIM, Barcelona, Spain, CIBER Epidemiologia y Salud Pública (CIBERESP). Instituto Nacional de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

Eva Balcells

Affiliations CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES). Instituto Nacional de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital del Mar-IMIM, Barcelona, Spain

Eduard Monsó

Affiliations CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES). Instituto Nacional de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital Universitari Parc Taulí, Sabadell, Spain

Angel Gayete

Affiliation Servei de Radiologia, Hospital del Mar-IMIM, Barcelona, Spain

Judith Garcia-Aymerich

Affiliations Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain, Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital del Mar-IMIM, Barcelona, Spain, CIBER Epidemiologia y Salud Pública (CIBERESP). Instituto Nacional de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

the PAC-COPD Study Group

Membership of the PAC-COPD Study Group is provided in the Acknowledgments

Competing Interests

Jaume Ferrer has received financial support from Almirall, Glaxo Smithkline, Novartis, Menarini, Nycomed and Boehringer Ingelheim for scientific meetings, research grants, advisory boards and scientific talks. Esther Rodríguez has received financial support from Novartis for scientific meetings and talks. This study was partly funded by Novartis Farmacèutica, Spain. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ER JF JPZ JGA. Performed the experiments: ER. Analyzed the data: ER JF JPZ IS JMA JdB HK RV DDG MB EB EM AG JGA. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ER JF JPZ IS JMA JdB HK RV DDG MB EB EM AG JGA. Wrote the paper: ER.