Spatial analysis of ozone in Atlanta: Regulatory and epidemiologic implications

Conference · Thu Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1998

OSTI ID:679360

Butler, A J; Mulholland, J A; Wilkinson, J G; Russell, A G ^[1]; Tolbert, P E ^[2]

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1. Georgia Inst. of Tech., Atlanta, GA (United States). School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
2. Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States). Rollins School of Public Health

Relationships between ambient levels of selected air pollutants and pediatric asthma exacerbation in Atlanta were studied retrospectively. As a part of this study, spatial distributions of ambient ozone concentrations in the twenty-county Atlanta metropolitan area during the summers of 1993, 1994 and 1995 were estimated and assessed. A universal kriging procedure was used for spatial interpolation of aerometric monitoring station data. In this paper, the spatial distributions of ozone are described, and regulatory and epidemiologic implications are discussed. For the study period, the Atlanta ozone nonattainment area based on the one-hour, exceedance-based standard of 0.12 ppm is estimated to expand from 56 percent of the Atlanta MSA by area and 71 percent by population to 88 percent by area and 96 percent by population under the new eight-hour, concentration-based standard of 0.08 ppm. Regarding asthma exacerbation, a 4 percent increase in pediatric asthma emergency room presentation rate per 20 ppb increase in ambient ozone concentration was observed (p-value = 0.001). Ambient ozone level represents a general indicator of air quality due to its correlation with other pollutants. The use of spatially-resolved ozone estimates in the epidemiologic analysis demonstrates the need to control confounding by demographic covariates.

• OSTI ID: 679360
• Report Number(s): CONF-980632--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
AIR POLLUTION
AIR POLLUTION MONITORING
ATLANTA
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
HEALTH HAZARDS
SEASONAL VARIATIONS