| IJOMEH
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
Current website - http://ijomeh.eu
Int. J. Occup. Med. Environ Health 2008;21(1):25-30 |
DOI 10.2478/v10001-008-0002-3 |
AMBIENT AIR POLLUTION AND DAILY EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT VISITS FOR ASTHMA IN EDMONTON, CANADA |
MIECZYSŁAW SZYSZKOWICZ |
Abstract
Objectives: As demonstrated by many studies, emergency
department (ED) visits for asthma can be associated with air pollution
exposures. The aim of this study was to examine and assess the
potential relations between ED visits for asthma and the concentrations
of ambient air pollutants. Materials and Methods: Generalized
linear mixed model was applied to study 62,563 ED visits for asthma
(ICD-9: 493). in Edmonton, Canada. Two age groups with 10 years of age
as a separator, were considered by gender and season of the year: all
(I-XII), warm (IV-IX) and cold (X-III). Results: The percentage
increase in daily ED visits for asthma was 17.8% (95% CI: 7.1-29.5) and
13.8% (95% CI: 3.3-25.3) for females below 10 years of age, in the
period of IV-IX, for current day and 1-day lagged exposure to ozone
(O3), respectively. The percentage increase was 17.7% (95% CI:
10.2-25.6) for males below 10 years of age, in the period of IV-IX, for
2-day lagged exposure to carbon monoxide (CO). Conclusions: The
findings provide support for the hypothesis that ED visits for asthma
are associated with exposure to O3. This study underlines the
significant role of air pollutants as triggering asthma attacks.