Air pollution and neonatal deaths in São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Air pollution has been associated with health effects on different age groups. The present study was designed to assess the impact of daily changes in air pollutants (NO 2 , SO 2 , CO, O 3 , and particle matter (PM 10 )) on total number of daily neonatal deaths (those that occur between the first and the 28th days of life) in São Paulo, from January 1998 to December 2000, since adverse outcomes such as neonatal deaths associated with air pollution in Brazil have not been evaluated before. Generalized additive Poisson regression models were used and nonparametric smooth functions (loess) were adopted to control longterm trend, temperature, humidity, and short-term trends. A linear term was used for holidays. The association between air pollutants and neonatal deaths showed a short time lag. Interquartile range increases in PM 10 (23.3 µg/m 3 ) and SO 2 (9.2 µg/m 3 ) were associated with increases of 4% (95% CI, 2-6) and 6% (95% CI, 4-8), respectively. Instead of adopting a two-pollutant model we created an index to represent PM 10 and SO 2 effects. For an interquartile range increase in the index an increase of 6.3% (95% CI, 6.1-6.5) in neonatal deaths was observed. These results agree with previous studies performed by our group showing the deleterious effects of air pollutants during the perinatal period. The method reported here represents an alternative approach to analyze the relationship between highly correlated pollutants and public health problems, reinforcing the idea of the synergic effects of air pollutants in public health.

Rainwater toxicity and contamination study from São Paulo Metropolitan Region, Brazil

“…A remarkable aspect highlighted in this investigation is the fact that, during wet season (summer), contaminant concentrations and toxicities tended to be higher, which was not expected. Both literature and reports from the State Environmental Agency regularly inform that air pollution is worse during winter, that is, the dry season (Castanho and Artaxo 2001;CETESB 2009;Lin et al 2004;Orsini et al 1986;Sharovski et al 2004), and so, a worse condition in rainwater would be expected during dry season. Besides, it has been stated that better atmospheric conditions in wet seasons are a result of washing process produced by frequent rains (Castanho and Artaxo 2001;Lin et al 2004;Saldiva et al 1995), as demonstrated to other areas of the world (Singh et al 2007).…”

“…The metropolitan area of São Paulo (MASP) comprises one of the largest megalopolis of the world; with a population of over 19 million people (CETESB 2012) and a huge and increasing automotive fleet, this presents many environmental problems, including atmospheric pollution (Leal et al 2004;Lin et al 2004;Miraglia et al 2005;Santos et al 2007).…”

Potencial de Tradescantia pallida cv. Purpurea para biomonitoramento da poluição aérea de Santo André - São Paulo, por meio do bioensaio Trad - MCN e do acúmulo foliar de elementos tóxicos

“…(CONSTANTIN 1982;DÄSSLER & BORTITZ 1988;KRUPA & MANNING 1988;RODRIGUES et al, 1996;BRAY et al, 2000;LARCHER 2000;FERDINAND et al, 2000;ZHENG et al, 2002;entre outros (ROBBINS et al, 1992;PEREIRA et al, 1998;MARTINS et al, 2002;BAKONY et al, 2004;LIN, et al, 2004;CANÇADO, et al, 2006 (SALDIVA et al, 1995;RIBEIRO et al, 2003;DAUMAS, et al,2004).…”

A estreita relação entre o meio ambiente e a saúde

“…Essa ocorrência se intensifica no inverno através do aumento de inversões térmicas, que bloqueiam a dispersão de poluentes atmosféricos primários, provocando episódios agudos de poluição. No Brasil, alguns estudos demonstram o retardo do crescimento intrauterino, menor peso ao nascer e maior mortalidade intrauterina e neonatal segundo PEREIRA et al (1998);LIN et al (2004) e MEDEIROS et al (2005.…”