Association between changes in air quality and hospital admissions during the holi festival

AbstractSeasonal influenza is a recurring health burden shared widely across the globe. We study whether air quality affects the occurrence of severe influenza cases that require inpatient hospitalization. Using longitudinal information on local air quality and hospital admissions across the United States, we find that poor air quality increases the incidence of significant influenza hospital admissions. Effects diminish in years with greater influenza vaccine effectiveness. Apart from increasing vaccination rates, improving air quality may help reduce the spread and severity of influenza.

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Environmental factors during COVID – 19 pandemic in Campinas, Brazil

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13561 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Bruno Kabke Bainy ◽

Ana Maria Heuminski de Ávila

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Environmental Factors ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Mobile Phone Data ◽

Environmental Aspects ◽

Air Contaminants ◽

Social Distancing ◽

Hospitalization Rates ◽

The Social ◽

The City

During COVID &#8211; 19 pandemic, the main strategy to prevent virus dissemination adopted worldwide was the social distancing, in different degrees (ranging from simple recommendations to the population, to complete lockdown). In this context, many studies were performed around the world to assess the impacts of such measures on the environment, specially on air quality. The reported results almost unanimously pointed to a reduction in air contaminants, mainly as a response to vehicular traffic depletion and, at some level, to reduced human and industrial activities. &#160;On March 24th, 2020, a partial lockdown was decreed in S&#227;o Paulo state, Brazil, and since then it has undergone, back and forth, several stages of strictness according to contamination and hospitalization rates, being stricter whenever intensive care units (ICU) occupation increased. Our study aims to evaluate environmental aspects (air quality and meteorology) in Campinas city (S&#227;o Paulo, Brazil), during the pandemic, from March 24th to December 31st, and compare it with the weeks prior to the social distancing and with the previous year. In addition to the environmental variables, the &#8220;social distancing index&#8221; (obtained by using mobile phone data to assess displacements) and medical data (hospital admissions and deaths) were employed to a preliminary analysis of&#160; the influence of environmental factors on COVID &#8211; 19 evolution in the city.

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Mobility Restrictions and Air Quality under COVID-19 Pandemic in São Paulo, Brazil

10.20944/preprints202004.0515.v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Edmilson D. Freitas ◽

Sergio A. Ibarra-Espinosa ◽

Mario E. Gavidia-Calderón ◽

Amanda Rehbein ◽

Sameh A. Abou Rafee ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Air Pollutants ◽

Large Scale ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Air Pollutant ◽

Government Officials ◽

Social Unrest ◽

The Public ◽

Containment Measure ◽

Mobility Reduction

Social distancing policies put in place during COVID-19 epidemic in addition to helping to limit the spread of the disease also contributed to improving urban air quality. Here we show a decrease in air pollutant concentration as a consequence of mobility reduction in São Paulo during the containment measure which began on 22nd March 2020. When comparing to foregoing weeks to equivalent periods of 2019, the concentration of most air pollutants sharply decreased in the first days of mobility restriction, to then increase again after government officials downplayed the threat of the disease. This trend is also followed by a decrease in hospital admissions by SARS-influenza. Therefore, despite the great economic and social unrest caused by the pandemic, this unique situation shows that large-scale mobility reduction policy had a significant impact on air quality, benefiting, directly and indirectly, the public health system.

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Avoiding hospital admissions for respiratory system diseases by complying to the final Brazilian air quality standard: an estimate for Brazilian southeast capitals

Environmental Science and Pollution Research ◽

10.1007/s11356-020-07772-x ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (29) ◽

pp. 35889-35907 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Matheus Augusto de Oliveira Fernandes ◽

Willian Lemker Andreão ◽

Felipe Marinho Maciel ◽

Taciana Toledo de Almeida Albuquerque

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Respiratory System ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Quality Standard

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Air quality health indices - review

MATEC Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/matecconf/201824700002 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 247 ◽

pp. 00002 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Anna Gayer ◽

Łukasz Adamkiewicz ◽

Dominika Mucha ◽

Artur Badyda

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Environmental Epidemiology ◽

Ambient Air ◽

Quality Data ◽

Health Indices ◽

Quality Health ◽

On Line ◽

Air Quality Health Index ◽

The Impact

Many studies have shown associations between exposure to air pollutants and negative health effects such as increased number of Hospital Admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases or even increased daily mortality due to those causes. To assess air quality in ambient air continuous monitoring is run in many cities worldwide. Data which is collected at these points should represent exposure of the population and is used to monitor medium and long-term trends. To provide an information for citizens about the impact of air quality on their health several governmental and municipal agencies developed air quality health indices These tools are based on environmental epidemiology models and on-line air quality data. The health risk is assessed differently for each index. In this paper review of Canadian, American, Hong Kong’s Air Quality Health Index.

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The Impact of Local Air Quality on the Number of Hospital Admissions with Acute Pain in Sickle Cell Disease within an Urban Environment.

Blood ◽

10.1182/blood.v108.11.3790.3790 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 108 (11) ◽

pp. 3790-3790

Author(s):

Deborah Yallop ◽

Edward R. Duncan ◽

Ellie Norris ◽

Gary Fuller ◽

Nikki Thomas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Sickle Cell Disease ◽

Environmental Factors ◽

Sickle Cell ◽

Acute Pain ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Clinical Severity ◽

Cell Disease ◽

Low Levels ◽

The Impact

Abstract The clinical severity of sickle cell disease (SCD) is dependent on genetic and environmental variables. The impact of environmental factors on disease is a major public health issue and air pollution has been consistently correlated with poor health outcomes. Environmental factors in SCD have been poorly studied. We have retrospectively studied the numbers of daily admissions with vaso-occlusive sickle cell pain to King’s College Hospital, London, in relation to local daily air quality measurements. We analysed 1047 patient episodes over 1400 days (1st January 1998 to 31st October 2001). Statistical time series analysis was performed using cross-correlation function (CCF), where the observations of one series are correlated with the observations of another series at various lags and leads, values >0.05 being significant. This showed a significant association between increased numbers of admissions and low levels of nitric oxide (NO) (CCF=0.063), low levels of carbon monoxide (CO) (CCF=0.064) and high levels of ozone (O3) (CCF=0.067). There was no association with sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitric dioxide (NO2) or dust. The significant results were further examined using quartile analysis. This confirmed that increased numbers of hospital admissions were associated with high levels of O3 (oneway ANOVA p=0.039) and low levels of CO (oneway ANOVA p=0.042). Low NO levels were also associated with increased admissions, not however reaching statistical significance on quartile analysis (oneway ANOVA p=0.158). O3 levels show marked seasonal variation, with high levels occurring in summer months in the UK. We have previously shown a trend towards increased admissions in the summer months with acute sickle related pain, whereas other groups, which are primarily based in rural tropical climates, found increased admissions in cold, rainy months. The adverse effect of high O3 levels may explain this difference. There is no direct evidence to explain the mechanism by which high O3 levels leads to vaso-occlusion in SCD but high levels of O3 have been linked to reduced respiratory function, which may in turn precipitate vaso-occlusion. Independent studies have shown high CO levels are linked to increased respiratory and cardiovascular admissions. Paradoxically we found that high CO levels were linked to decreased admission numbers and may be protective against acute pain in SCD. CO may confer benefit by forming carboxyhaemoglobin that cannot polymerise resulting in decreased sickling. Previous studies have shown prolonged red cell survival in vivo following administration of CO to patients with SCD. Our study also suggests higher levels of atmospheric NO are linked to fewer admissions. NO is known to be central in the pathophysiology of vaso-occlusion and sickle cell patients are thought to have functional deficiency of NO. Many groups have reported inhaled NO as beneficial in the treatment of sickle pain. Our study suggests air quality has a significant effect on acute pain in SCD and that patients should be counselled accordingly. Based on these findings it would be appropriate to warn patients that high O3 levels might precipitate complications of SCD. The potential beneficial effect of CO and NO is intriguing and requires further investigation.

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Health-Based Approach to Determine Alert and Information Thresholds for Particulate Matter Air Pollution

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13031345 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 1345

Author(s):

Łukasz Adamkiewicz ◽

Katarzyna Maciejewska ◽

Krzysztof Skotak ◽

Michal Krzyzanowski ◽

Artur Badyda ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Particulate Matter ◽

Air Quality ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Health Impact ◽

Pm10 Concentration ◽

Case Scenario ◽

Potential Health ◽

Pollution Levels ◽

Guideline Value

In this study Health Impact Assessment (HIA) methods were used to evaluate potential health benefits related to keeping air pollution levels in Poland under certain threshold concentrations. Impacts of daily mean particulate matter (PM)10 levels on hospital admissions due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases were considered. Relative risk coefficients were adopted from WHO HRAPIE project. The analyses covered period from 2015 to 2017, and were limited to the heating season (1st and 4th quarter of the year), when the highest PM10 concentrations occur. The national total number of hospital admissions attributed to PM10 concentration exceeding WHO daily Air Quality Guideline value of 50 µg/m3 was calculated for each of the 46 air quality zones established in Poland. We found that the reduction of the attributable hospital admissions by 75% or 50% of that expected for the “best case scenario”, with no days with PM10 concentration exceeding 50 µg/m3 would require avoidance of exceedance by the daily mean PM10 concentration of 64 µg/m3 and 83 µg/m3, respectively. These concentrations were proposed as the information and alert thresholds, respectively. The alert thresholds were exceeded on 2 and 38 days per year in the least and the most polluted zones, respectively. Exceedances of the information thresholds occurred on 6 and 66 days in these zones.

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The associations between air quality and the number of hospital admissions for acute pain and sickle-cell disease in an urban environment

British Journal of Haematology ◽

10.1111/j.1365-2141.2007.06493.x ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 136 (6) ◽

pp. 844-848 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Deborah Yallop ◽

Edward R. Duncan ◽

Elizabeth Norris ◽

Gary W. Fuller ◽

Nikki Thomas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Sickle Cell Disease ◽

Urban Environment ◽

Sickle Cell ◽

Acute Pain ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Cell Disease

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Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Air Quality and Health. Association between Concentrations of Tropospheric Ozone and Infection Cases and Deaths in Spain

10.21203/rs.3.rs-126096/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Eusebio R Álvarez-Vázquez ◽

Pablo A Castro-Guijarro ◽

Antonio José Fernandez-Espinosa

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Tropospheric Ozone ◽

Air Pollutants ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Meteorological Factors ◽

Vehicular Traffic ◽

Respiratory Problems ◽

Health Association ◽

Industrial Gases ◽

Pearson Correlations

Abstract BackgroundThis work describes the changes of the air quality and the health implications caused by the lockdown of the first-wave provoked by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Air pollutants were studied in 83 locations in Southern Spain. The study covered urban and industrial gases, NO2, CO, SO2, H2S and O3, and also PM10 and PM2.5 particles.MethodsIt was evaluated the increase and decrease of concentrations during the state of alarm declared on 14th March. Pearson correlations for air pollutants, meteorological factors, vehicular traffic densities (VTDs) and data of infections and deaths caused by the COVID-19 disease were also assessed.ResultsIt was found a clear reduction in carbon monoxide (-25% to -83%), particulate matter (-21% to -42%) and mainly nitrogen dioxide (-55% to -81%) in trafficked areas during the lockdown, reducing cardiovascular and respiratory problems. CO, SO2 and H2S increased (+26 to 34%, +68 to +85% and +32 to +84%) at industrial locations. O3 increased along the lockdown period coinciding with reductions in NO2 and CO (r = -0.90 and -0.81). This ozone rising constitute the ozone lockdown effect (OLE), increasing the risk of pneumonia hospital admissions. Regarding traffic, Pearson coefficients between ozone and VTDs were higher during lockdown than pre-lockdown period, and in the most trafficked areas a reduction in PM10 and PM2.5 levels was observed, contributing this also to the OLE.ConclusionsEffects of ozone on COVID-19 disease was revealed by the graphic associations and correlations found between O3 levels and infection cases and deaths, which were remarkable, constituting in this case the ozone COVID effect (OCE): when concentrations of O3 increase, the incidence of the disease is higher; when O3 falls, infection cases are reduced.

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