Dataset Information

Chemical properties of air pollutants and cause-specific hospital admissions among the elderly in Atlanta, Georgia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Health risks differ by fine particle (aerodynamic diameter ? 2.5 ?m) component, although with substantial variability. Traditional methods to assess component-specific risks are limited, suggesting the need for alternative methods.

Objectives

We examined whether the odds of daily hospital admissions differ by pollutant chemical properties.

Methods

We categorized pollutants by chemical properties and examined their impacts on the odds of daily hospital admissions among Medicare recipients > 64 years of age in counties in Atlanta, Georgia, for 1998-2006. We analyzed data in two stages. In the first stage we applied a case-crossover analysis to simultaneously estimate effects of 65 pollutants measured in the Aerosol Research and Inhalation Epidemiology Study on cause-specific hospital admissions, controlling for temperature and ozone. In the second stage, we regressed pollutant-specific slopes from the first stage on pollutant properties. We calculated uncertainty estimates using a bootstrap procedure. We repeated the two-stage analyses using coefficients from first-stage models that included single pollutants plus ozone and meteorological variables only. We based our primary analyses on exposures on day of admission.

Results

We found that 24-hr transition metals and alkanes were associated with increased odds [0.26%; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.02-0.48; and 0.37%; 95% CI, 0.04-0.72, respectively] of hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Transition metals were significantly associated with increased hospital admissions for ischemic heart disease, congestive heart failure, and atrial fibrillation. Increased respiratory-related hospital admissions were significantly associated with alkanes. Aromatics and microcrystalline oxides were significantly associated with decreased CVD- and respiratory-related hospital admissions.

Conclusions

The two-stage approach showed transition metals to be consistently associated with increased odds of CVD-related hospital admissions.

SUBMITTER: Suh HH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3230427 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Chemical properties of air pollutants and cause-specific hospital admissions among the elderly in Atlanta, Georgia.

Suh Helen H HH Zanobetti Antonella A Schwartz Joel J Coull Brent A BA

Environmental health perspectives 20110627 10

<h4>Background</h4>Health risks differ by fine particle (aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm) component, although with substantial variability. Traditional methods to assess component-specific risks are limited, suggesting the need for alternative methods.<h4>Objectives</h4>We examined whether the odds of daily hospital admissions differ by pollutant chemical properties.<h4>Methods</h4>We categorized pollutants by chemical properties and examined their impacts on the odds of daily hospital admissions ...[more]

PMID: 21708510

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Project description:Railyards are important transportation hubs, and they are often situated near populated areas with high co-located density of manufacturing, freight movement and commercial enterprises. Emissions occurring within railyards can affect nearby air quality. To better understand the air pollution levels in proximity to a major railyard, an intensive mobile air monitoring study was conducted in May 2012 around a major railyard area in Atlanta, GA, constituted of two separate facilities situated side-by-side. A total of 19 multi-hour mobile monitoring sessions took place over different times of day, days of the week, and under a variety of wind conditions. High time resolution measurements included black carbon (BC), particle number concentration (PN), particle optical extinction (EXT), oxides of nitrogen (NO, NO₂, NOy), carbon monoxide (CO), and speciated air toxics. Urban background was estimated to contribute substantially (>70%) to EXT and CO, whereas BC, oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and toluene had comparably low background contributions (<30%). Mobile monitoring data were aggregated into 50 meter spatial medians by wind categories, with categories including low speed wind conditions (<0.5 m s-1) and, for wind speeds above that threshold, by wind direction relative to the railyard. Spatial medians of different pollutants measured had a wide range of correlation-gas-phase air toxics (benzene, toluene, acetaldehyde) had moderate correlation with each other (r = 0.46⁻0.59) and between toluene and CO (r = 0.53), but lower correlation for other pairings. PN had highest correlation with oxides of nitrogen (r = 0.55⁻0.66), followed by BC (r = 0.4), and lower correlation with other pollutants. Multivariate regression analysis on the full set of 50 m medians found BC and NO as having the strongest relationship to railyard emissions, in comparison to their respective background levels. This was indicated by an increase associated with transiting through the yard and inverse relationship with distance from the railyard; NO and BC decreased by a factor of approximately 0.5 and 0.7 over 1 km distance of the railyard boundary, respectively. Low speed, variable wind conditions were related to higher concentrations of all measured parameters.

Dataset Information

Chemical properties of air pollutants and cause-specific hospital admissions among the elderly in Atlanta, Georgia.

Background

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Chemical properties of air pollutants and cause-specific hospital admissions among the elderly in Atlanta, Georgia.

Similar Datasets

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