Association of Cardiorespiratory Hospital Admissions with Ambient Volatile Organic Compounds: Evidence from a Time-series Study in Taipei, Taiwan

ABSTRACT CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Exposure to air pollutants is one of the factors responsible for hospitalizations due to pneumonia among children. This has considerable financial cost, along with social cost. A study to identify the role of this exposure in relation to hospital admissions due to pneumonia among children up to 10 years of age was conducted. DESIGN AND SETTING: Ecological time series study using data from São José dos Campos, Brazil. METHODS: Daily data on hospitalizations due to pneumonia and on the pollutants CO, O3, PM10 and SO2, temperature and humidity in São José dos Campos, in 2012, were analyzed. A generalized additive model of Poisson's regression was used. Relative risks for hospitalizations due to pneumonia, according to lags of 0-5 days, were estimated. The population-attributable fraction, number of avoidable hospitalizations and cost savings from avoidable hospitalizations were calculated. RESULTS: There were 539 admissions. Exposure to CO and O3 was seen to be associated with hospitalizations, with risks of 1.10 and 1.15 on the third day after exposure to increased CO concentration of 200 ppb and ozone concentration of 20 µg/m3. Exposure to the pollutants of particulate matter and sulfur dioxide were not shown to be associated with hospitalizations. Decreases in CO and ozone concentrations could lead to 49 fewer hospitalizations and cost reductions of R$ 39,000.00. CONCLUSION: Exposure to certain air pollutants produces harmful effects on children's health, even in a medium-sized city. Public policies to reduce emissions of these pollutants need to be implemented.

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Air pollution and pediatric respiratory hospital admissions in Bursa, Turkey: A time series study

International Journal of Environmental Health Research ◽

10.1080/09603123.2021.1991282 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Eda Ünal ◽

Aysel Özdemir ◽

Narges Khanjani ◽

Maryam Dastoorpoor ◽

Güven Özkaya

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Time Series ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Time Series Study ◽

Series Study

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Source-Specific Volatile Organic Compounds and Emergency Hospital Admissions for Cardiorespiratory Diseases

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17176210 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (17) ◽

pp. 6210

Author(s):

Jinjun Ran ◽

Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou ◽

Shengzhi Sun ◽

Lefei Han ◽

Shi Zhao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Volatile Organic Compounds ◽

Organic Compounds ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Additive Models ◽

Short Term ◽

Emergency Hospital ◽

Emergency Hospital Admissions ◽

Household Products ◽

Volatile Organic ◽

Gasoline Emissions

Knowledge gaps remain regarding the cardiorespiratory impacts of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for the general population. This study identified contributing sources to ambient VOCs and estimated the short-term effects of VOC apportioned sources on daily emergency hospital admissions for cardiorespiratory diseases in Hong Kong from 2011 to 2014. We estimated VOC source contributions using fourteen organic chemicals by positive matrix factorization. Then, we examined the associations between the short-term exposure to VOC apportioned sources and emergency hospital admissions for cause-specific cardiorespiratory diseases using generalized additive models with polynomial distributed lag models while controlling for meteorological and co-pollutant confounders. We identified six VOC sources: gasoline emissions, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) usage, aged VOCs, architectural paints, household products, and biogenic emissions. We found that increased emergency hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were positively linked to ambient VOCs from gasoline emissions (excess risk (ER%): 2.1%; 95% CI: 0.9% to 3.4%), architectural paints (ER%: 1.5%; 95% CI: 0.2% to 2.9%), and household products (ER%: 1.5%; 95% CI: 0.2% to 2.8%), but negatively associated with biogenic VOCs (ER%: −6.6%; 95% CI: −10.4% to −2.5%). Increased congestive heart failure admissions were positively related to VOCs from architectural paints and household products in cold seasons. This study suggested that source-specific VOCs might trigger the exacerbation of cardiorespiratory diseases.

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Atmospheric Pollution and Hospitalization for Cardiovascular and Respiratory Diseases in the City of Manaus from 2008 to 2012

The Scientific World JOURNAL ◽

10.1155/2020/8458359 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Daniel S. Sacramento ◽

Lourdes C. Martins ◽

Marcos A. Arbex ◽

Ysabely de A. P. Pamplona

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Time Series ◽

Respiratory Diseases ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Additive Models ◽

Time Series Study ◽

Wide Range ◽

Temperature And Humidity ◽

The City ◽

Series Study

Introduction. Air pollution has been identified as a serious public health problem in the world’s major metropolises. Recent studies have shown that airborne particle concentrations are associated with a wide range of effects on human health, including increased hospital admissions for respiratory disease, enhanced asthma episodes, decreased lung function, and increased mortality. Objective. To relate the levels of air pollution and hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in the city of Manaus in Brazil from 2008 to 2012. Method. This is an ecological time-series study among children (under 5 years of age) and elderly (above 60 years of age). Data on the daily number of hospitalizations for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, pollutants (PM2.5), temperature, and humidity were used. Poisson generalized additive models were used to estimate the association between variables. Increases in hospitalizations for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases were estimated for the interquartile range (IQR) daily mean level of each variable studied, with a confidence interval of 95%. Results. Respiratory diseases and children: −0.40% (95% CI: −1.11, 0.30), 0.59% (95% CI: −0.35, 1.52), and 0.47% (95% CI: −3.28, 4.21) for PM2.5, temperature, and humidity, respectively. Respiratory diseases and elderly: 0.19% (95% CI: −0.93, 1.31), −0.10% (95% CI: −1.85, 1.65), and −6.17% (95% CI: −13.08, 0.74) for PM2.5, temperature, and humidity, respectively. Cardiovascular diseases and elderly: −0.18% (95% CI: −0.86, 0.50), −0.04% (95% CI: −1.10, 1.03), and −3.37% (95% CI: −7.59, 0.85) for PM2.5, temperature, and humidity, respectively. Conclusions. The time-series study found no significant association between PM2.5, temperature, humidity, and hospitalization, unlike the evidences provided by the present academic literature. Since there is no air quality monitoring network in Manaus and the option available in the present study was to reproduce some information obtained from remote sensing, there is a need for implementation of ground monitoring stations for health and environmental studies in the region.

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