The Effects of Ambient Air Pollution on School Absenteeism Due to Respiratory Illnesses

Abstract

We investigated the relations between ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and respirable particles less than 10 microm in diameter (PM10) and school absenteeism in a cohort of 4th-grade school children who resided in 12 southern California communities. An active surveillance system ascertained the numbers and types of absences during the first 6 months of 1996. Pollutants were measured hourly at central-site monitors in each of the 12 communities. To examine acute effects of air pollution on absence rates, we fitted a two-stage time-series model to the absence count data that included distributed lag effects of exposure adjusted for long-term pollutant levels. Short-term change in O3, but not NO2 or PM10, was associated with a substantial increase in school absences from both upper and lower respiratory illness. An increase of 20 ppb of O3 was associated with an increase of 62.9% [95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 18.4-124.1%] for illness-related absence rates, 82.9% (95% CI = 3.9-222.0%) for respiratory illnesses, 45.1% (95% CI = 21.3-73.7%) for upper respiratory illnesses, and 173.9% (95% CI = 91.3-292.3%) for lower respiratory illnesses with wet cough. The short-term effects of a 20-ppb change of O3 on illness-related absenteeism were larger in communities with lower long-term average PM10 [223.5% (95% CI = 90.4-449.7)] compared with communities with high average levels [38.1% (95% CI = 8.5-75.8)]. Increased school absenteeism from O3 exposure in children is an important adverse effect of ambient air pollution worthy of public policy consideration.

The association between contextual socioeconomic factors and prevalent asthma in a cohort of Southern California school children

“…Previous statistical analyses of CHS data have utilized similar models to examine community-level effects (Berhane, Gauderman, Stram, & Thomas, in press;Gilliland, Berhane, Rappaport, Thomas, Avol, Gauderman et al, 2001;Hoffman, Gilliland, Eley, Harlan, Stephenson, Stanford et al, 2001;McConnell, Berhane, Gilliland, Molitor, Thomas, Lurmann et al, 2003).…”

Every Breath You Take—Every Dollar You’ll Make: The Long-Term Consequences of the Clean Air Act of 1970

“…Moreover, since less advantaged individuals live in more 4 For example, Hanna and Oliva (2011) examine labor supply, while Graff-Zivin and Neidell (2013) study labor productivity. Studies also show that contemporaneous pollution exposure can affect human capital accumulation by increasing school absenteeism (Ransom and Pope, 1992;Gilliland, Berhane, Rappaport, Thomas, Avol, Gauderman, London, Margolis, McConnell, Islam, et al, 2001;Currie, Hanushek, Kahn, Neidell, and Rivkin, 2009), and impairing cognitive performance on high-stakes tests (Lavy, Ebenstein, and Roth, 2012). There is also a possibility that pollution can affect adult income if parents have to forego work to take care of asthmatic children (Currie, Hanushek, Kahn, Neidell, and Rivkin, 2009).…”

Severe Air Pollution and School Absences: Longitudinal Data on Expatriates in North China

“…On a more positive note, our finding that despite the excess pollution the absentee response is not excessive relative to what the literature finds for the US suggests that high-income families from mostly rich countries, stationed temporarily in developing-world megacities, find ways to adapt. For example, moving life indoors and staying inside air-conditioned spaces at home, school, and car, may partly be protective of one's health, even if temporary residence in north China comes at the expense of long-term 10 Table 1 in Currie et al (2009) summarizes the sample, method and findings in Ransom and Pope (1992), Makino (2000), Chen et al (2000), Gilliland et al (2001), and Park et al (2002). Romieu et al (1992) examine ozone-related absences in a panel of 111 preschoolers in Mexico City over three months.…”