Effect of air pollution on pediatric respiratory emergency room visits and hospital admissions

Abstract

In order to assess the effect of air pollution on pediatric respiratory morbidity, we carried out a time series study using daily levels of PM 10 , SO 2 , NO 2 , ozone, and CO and daily numbers of pediatric respiratory emergency room visits and hospital admissions at the Children's Institute of the University of São Paulo Medical School, from August 1996 to August 1997. In this period there were 43,635 hospital emergency room visits, 4534 of which were due to lower respiratory tract disease. The total number of hospital admissions was 6785, 1021 of which were due to lower respiratory tract infectious and/or obstructive diseases. The three health end-points under investigation were the daily number of emergency room visits due to lower respiratory tract diseases, hospital admissions due to pneumonia, and hospital admissions due to asthma or bronchiolitis. Generalized additive Poisson regression models were fitted, controlling for smooth functions of time, temperature and humidity, and an indicator of weekdays. NO 2 was positively associated with all outcomes. Interquartile range increases (65.04 µg/m 3 ) in NO 2 moving averages were associated with an 18.4% increase (95% confidence interval, 95% CI = 12.5-24.3) in emergency room visits due to lower respiratory tract diseases (4-day moving average), a 17.6% increase (95% CI = 3.3-32.7) in hospital admissions due to pneumonia or bronchopneumonia (3-day moving average), and a 31.4% increase (95% CI = 7.2-55.7) in hospital admissions due to asthma or bronchiolitis (2-day moving average). The study showed that air pollution considerably affects children's respiratory morbidity, deserving attention from the health authorities. Correspondence

A systematic review of the physical and chemical characteristics of pollutants from biomass burning and combustion of fossil fuels and health effects in Brazil

“…Ninety articles (66%) deal with the adverse respiratory effects of air pollution of which 54 (60%) were selected 21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,…”

“…Several time-series studies were conducted in metropolitan areas to investigate the health effects of air pollution 21,22,23,27,28,31,32,35,36,38,41,42,44,46,49,64,69,74 . Published in 2007, the first studies on the health effects of air pollution in biomass burning areas in the Brazilian Amazon were limited to descriptive studies and focused mainly on asthma 59,61,65,66,72 .…”

Children's Environment in Brazil: From Domestic (Indoor) to Regional Threats

“…Several authors have explored the deleterious effect of outdoor air pollution on pediatric respiratory morbidity [117,119,124] with decrease in lung function [106], with increased risk for asthma [111] and pneumonia in children [99,113] in urban areas like the cities of São Paulo [100,114,122,123], Rio de Janeiro [105], Curitiba [119] and Sobral [104]. Considering the lack of information on the air pollution effects on mortality in children's group, a study [121] showed the significant association between respiratory mortality in children and air pollution, in a city of SE Region.…”

“…Copyright: © 2016 Chauhan et al Farhat et al (2005) [114] to assess the effect of air pollution on pediatric respiratory morbidity In the subtheme "exposure to chemical micropollutants", 15 articles (Tab. VI) were identified.…”

Effects of weather types on hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

“…An association between daily ozone levels and respiratory symptoms has been reported (Romieu et al, 1996;Rabinovitch et al, 2004). Nevertheless, some authors have failed to note a significant relationship between ozone levels and morbidity (Atkinson et al, 1999;Farhat et al, 2005;Hinwood et al, 2006). Such differences are probably due to geographic reasons, although they may also be linked to the type of methodology employed.…”