Short-Term Associations between Emergency Hospital Admissions for Respiratory and Cardiovascular Disease and Outdoor Air Pollution in London

Abstract

There are concerns about the possible short-term effects of outdoor air pollution on health in the United Kingdom. In a study conducted during the time period between 1987 and 1992, investigators determined that ozone had small, but significant effects on emergency respiratory admissions. In the current study, the authors investigated associations between emergency admissions and outdoor air pollution for the time period from 1992 to 1994, inclusive, and compared the results with those obtained in the earlier study. The authors also examined particulate matter less than 10 microm in diameter (PM10) and carbon monoxide in the current study. Appropriate confounding factors, such as seasonal patterns, temperature, and humidity, were controlled for, and the authors used Poisson regression to estimate the association between daily emergency admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, particles measured as Black Smoke, and PM10. Significant positive associations were found between emergency hospital admissions for respiratory disease and PM10 and sulfur dioxide, but such an association did not exist for ozone. The results were not significantly different from earlier results from London and were comparable with those determined in North America and Europe. Cardiovascular disease was associated with carbon monoxide and Black Smoke, but weaker associations existed with the other pollutants studied.

A tale of two cities: effects of air pollution on hospital admissions in Hong Kong and London compared.

“…It also gives similar results to methods that use a synoptic approach to control for weather factors (30). In a sensitivity analysis, the method of parametric seasonal control was applied to selected series in both London (11) and Hong Kong; results were similar to those observed using the current method, which used generalized additive models (data not shown). The data on air pollution, weather, and outcomes were defined in an identical manner.…”

“…Hong Kong is a large city in a subtropical region where there is evidence of adverse effects of air pollution (8,9). London, United Kingdom, is a city of similar size for which adverse health effects of air pollution have also been reported (10,11). On one hand, there are similarities between the two cities in terms of their main sources and levels of pollutants and patterns of the respiratory and cardiac diseases.…”

Air pollution, avoidance behaviour and children's respiratory health: Evidence from England

“…Examining asthma hospitalisations between March and October, Neidell (2009) (1996), Atkinson et al (1999) and Anderson et al (2001) Leon et al (1996), Sunyer et al (1997), Petroeschevsky et al (2001), Burnett et al (1994) and Fusco et al (2001) find elasticities at the mean between 0.004 and 0.06, up to two-thirds of my estimates. These studies assign one air pollution measure to the whole study area, so their estimates suffer from measurement error.…”

“…For example, de Leon et al (1996) analyse data for London in 1987 to 1992 and Atkinson et al (1999) extend this analysis for the period 1992 to 1994. Anderson et al (2001) conduct a study in the West Midlands conurbation in England for the period 1994 to 1996.…”

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.…”