Two-Year Follow-Up Study of the Effect of Acid Fog on Adult Asthma Patients.

Tanaka, Hiroshi; Honma, S; Nishi, Motoi; Igarashi, Tadahiko; Nishio, Fumihiko; Abe, Shosaku

doi:10.2169/internalmedicine.35.100

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Acid fog in cities with industry has been reported to be associated with an increased number of asthma visits in adults (Tanaka et al 1996(Tanaka et al , 1998. More recently, Kashiwabara and colleagues (Kashiwabara et al 2002) found that mist and fog were associated with an increased occurrence of night-time emergency room visits among children.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frequency of emergency room visits for childhood asthma in Ottawa, Canada: the role of weather

2005

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The aim of this study was to evaluate associations between meteorological conditions and the number of emergency department visits for asthma in a children's hospital in Ottawa, Canada. A case-crossover study design was used. Hospital emergency department visits for asthma between 1992 and 2000 were identified based on patients' presenting complaints. We obtained hourly measures for the following meteorological variables: wind speed, temperature, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, and visibility. Particular emphasis was placed on exploring the association between asthma visits and fog, thunderstorms, snow, and liquid and freezing forms of precipitation. In total, there were 18,970 asthma visits among children between 2 and 15 years of age. The number of visits and weather characteristics were grouped into 6 h case and control intervals. The occurrence of fog or liquid precipitation was associated with an increased number of asthma visits, while snow was associated with a reduced number (P<0.05). Stratified analyses by season found no association in any of the four calendar intervals between the number of asthma visits and visibility, change in relative humidity and change in temperature. In contrast, summertime thunderstorm activity was associated with an odds ratio of 1.35 (95% CI=1.02-1.77) relative to summer periods with no activity. Models that incorporate calendar and meteorological data may help emergency departments to more efficiently allocate resources needed to treat children presenting with respiratory distress.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frequency of emergency room visits for childhood asthma in Ottawa, Canada: the role of weather

2005

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“…The subjects (15-79 yrs old) were 45 males and 57 females. A previous report on the same subjects has been published [2]. The characteristics of the patients are shown in table 1.…”

Section: Subjectsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…In Kushiro, a city with only a small industrial area, located in north-eastern Japan, where floating fog from the Pacific Ocean frequently occurs every summer, the annual average pH of fog in 1991 was 4.91 and the minimum was 3.39. It was recently reported that hospital visits for asthma increased on foggy days in 8.8% of the adult asthmatics in Kushiro [2]. Historical air pollution disasters with high mortality and morbidity have occurred during periods of fog [3].…”

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confidence: 99%

Acid fog and hospital visits for asthma: an epidemiological study

Tanaka

Honma²,

Nishi³

et al. 1998

Eur Respir J

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The aim of this study was to elucidate the adverse respiratory effects of naturally occurring acid fog. In total, 102 adult asthmatic patients (44 nonatopic and 58 atopic) were studied for a 2 yr period (January 1992 to December 1993) in Kushiro, a city with only a small industrial area, located in the northern-most island in Japan. Fog occurred on 378 out of 731 days, and the acidity of the fog ranged from pH 3.32 to 6.91 (mean pH 4.95). The association between hospital visits for asthma and meteorological factors or air pollutants was investigated. In nonatopic patients, fog, high ozone and water vapour pressure, low day-to-day temperature differences, low concentrations of atmospheric NO and NO2 contributed significantly (p<0.05) to increasing hospital visits. In atopic subjects, fog, high water vapour pressure, low levels of atmospheric NO2 and SO2 contributed significantly to hospital visits (p<0.05). In Poisson regression analysis the remaining factors of significance (p<0.01) for nonatopic asthma were fog and low NO and for atopic asthma were high water vapour pressure and low SO2 (p<0.05). A weak but significant correlation was observed between the number of hospital visits and the mean pH of the foggy day (r=-0.38, p<0.05) in nonatopic asthmatic patients, not in atopic asthma. On foggy days, gaseous air pollutant levels were significantly (p<0.01) lower than on fog-free days. It was concluded that, naturally occurring acid fog may have a weak bronchoconstrictive effect which appears to be more influential in nonatopic asthmatic subjects than in atopic subjects.

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“…Acid fog in industrialized cities has been reported to be related to a high frequency of emergency room visits by asthmatic patients. [4,5] However, it is uncertain whether or not water droplets alone contained in mist and fog are also related to respiratory conditions in asthmatic patients. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between meteorological conditions, including the presence of mist and fog in rural districts, and the frequency of emergency room visits by asthmatic children at night.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%