Associations between Ambient Particulate Sulfate and Admissions to Ontario Hospitals for Cardiac and Respiratory Diseases

Abstract

The association of daily cardiac and respiratory admissions to 168 acute care hospitals in Ontario, Canada, with daily levels of particulate sulfates was examined over the 6-year period 1983-1988. Sulfate levels were recorded at nine monitoring stations in regions of southern and central Ontario spanned by three monitoring networks. A 13-micrograms/m3 increase in sulfates recorded on the day prior to admission (the 95th percentile) was associated with a 3.7% (p < 0.0001) increase in respiratory admissions and a 2.8% (p < 0.0001) increase in cardiac admissions. Increases were observed for all age groups examined. Admissions for cardiac diseases increased 2.5% for those under 65 years and 3.5% for those 65 years and older. After adjusting for ambient temperature and ozone, similar increases in respiratory admissions were observed in the period from April to September (3.2%) and in the period from October to March (2.8%). A 3.2% increase was observed for cardiac admissions in the period from April to September, and a 3.4% increase was observed in the period from October to March after adjusting for ambient temperature and ozone.

Acute exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and heart rate variability.

“…Deleterious health outcomes associated with reduced cardiac autonomic function, as measured by time-domain and frequency-domain measures of HRV, has been well established (10)(11)(12)31). Parallel research has observed associations between exposure to combustion-related RSP from outdoor origin and cardiopulmonary disease similar to associations observed with ETS (19)(20)(21)(22)(23). A few recent studies have shown that acute changes in exposure to RSP primarily from outdoor origin are associated with short-term changes in HR (15) and HRV (16)(17)(18).…”

“…Studies have shown increases in HRV shortly after smoking cessation (13,14) and changes in heart rate (HR) (15) and HRV (16-18) associated with acute exposure to respirable suspended particles (RSP), primarily of outdoor origin. Epidemiologic studies have also shown associations between exposure to RSP and cardiopulmonary disease similar to those observed with ETS (19)(20)(21)(22)(23).…”

Vehicular Air Pollution, Playgrounds, and Youth Athletic Fields

“…Current investigations suggest that PM toxicity is highly influenced by number concentration and/or particle surface area (Oberdorster, 1996), while ambient particulate matter with median aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM 2.5 ) has been associated with lung damage (Gauderman et al, 2004;Kim et al, 2004;McConnell et al, 2003) and cardiovascular events (Burnett et al, 1995;Peters et al, 2001;Ware, 2000). The most common source of PM 2.5 is found in combustion emissions of fossil-fueled automobiles and diesel-powered trucks, with over 90% of the particle count from diesel aerosol having an aerodynamic diameter of <30 nm (Kittelson et al, 2004).…”

“…Although individuals with cardiovascular disease (Burnett et al, 1995) and type 2 diabetes (Zanobetti & Schwartz, 2001) appear to be more sensitive to ambient particle exposure than healthy adults, the developing lung of children may be 541 especially vulnerable to adverse consequences of particle inhalation (Schwartz, 2004). Children may also have higher exposure to air pollutants than adults because of high outdoor physical activity and the resultant increase in minute ventilation.…”

Effect of motor vehicle emissions on respiratory health in an urban area.

“…Codes for the respiratory subset identify asthma, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, and upper respiratory tract infections, all of which have been associated with PM 2.5 exposure in previous studies (28)(29)(30)(31). We examined diagnoses other than those in the respiratory subset to assess the specificity of any association between respiratory health and exposure.…”