A multi-year study of air pollution and respiratory hospital admissions in three New York State metropolitan areas: results for 1988 and 1989 summers

Journal Article · Thu Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1992 · Journal of Esposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology; (United States)

OSTI ID:7021510

Thurston, G D; Ito, K; Kinney, P L; Lippmann, M ^[1]

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1. Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine, Tuxedo, NY (United States)

As part of a multi-year study of air pollution and respiratory hospital admissions in the Buffalo, Albany, and New York City, New York, metropolitan areas, filter samples were collected daily at suburban air monitoring sites and analyzed for their content of particulate phase aerosol strong acidity (i.e., hydrogen ion, H+) and sulfate (SO4 =). In addition, daily hospital admissions for respiratory causes, other community air pollutant measurements (e.g., ozone, O3), and meteorological data (e.g., temperature) were also obtained for these metropolitan areas. The summer months (June-August) were selected for analysis because that is when the highest H+ (and O3) are usually experienced at these sites, and because these months are rarely complicated by other major influences (e.g., high pollen counts). Thus, any pollution-admissions relationships were expected to be most clearly discernible in this season. Prior to the health effects analysis, the summer admissions and environmental data were first detrended to eliminate long-wave autocorrelations, and day-of-week effects were removed via regression. Cross-correlations of the filtered 1988 and 1989 admissions and environmental data revealed strong associations between elevated summer haze pollution (i.e., H+, SO4 =, and O3) and increased total respiratory and asthma admissions on the same day and/or on subsequent days in Buffalo and New York City, especially during the summer of 1988 (when pollution levels were more extreme). Regression analyses indicated that the pollution-admissions associations remained significant (p < 0.05) even after the simultaneous inclusion of lagged daily maximum temperature. Mean effects calculations for these cities indicated that summertime haze can play a significant role in the occurrence of respiratory admissions in that season: accounting for an average 6 to 24% of 1988 Buffalo and NYC asthma admissions. O3 consistently had the highest mean effects estimates.

• OSTI ID: 7021510
• Journal Information: Journal of Esposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology; (United States), Journal Name: Journal of Esposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology; (United States) Vol. 2:4; ISSN JEAEE9; ISSN 1053-4245
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

550900 -- Pathology
552000* -- Public Health
560300 -- Chemicals Metabolism &amp; Toxicology
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
AIR POLLUTION
AIR QUALITY
ANIMALS
ASTHMA
BUFFALO
BUILDINGS
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DISEASES
ELEMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
HOSPITALS
HUMAN POPULATIONS
HYDROGEN
MAMMALS
MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENTS
MONITORING
NEW YORK
NEW YORK CITY
NONMETALS
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
OZONE
PATIENTS
POLLUTION
POPULATIONS
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM DISEASES
RUMINANTS
SEASONS
SULFATES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
URBAN AREAS
URBAN POPULATIONS
USA
VERTEBRATES