Air pollution and daily hospitalization rates for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in London, Ontario

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the role that ambient air pollution plays in exacerbating cardiovascular and respiratory disease hospitalization in London, Ontario from 1 November 1995 to 31 December 2000. The number of daily cardiac and respiratory admissions was linked to concentrations of air pollutants (sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, coefficient of haze, PM₁₀) and weather variables (maximum and minimum of temperature and humidity). Results showed that current day carbon monoxide and coefficient of haze produced significant percentage increase in daily cardiac admissions of 8.0% (95% CI: 1.5–11.5%) and 5.7% (95% CI: 0.9–10.8%) for people < 65 years old. PM₁₀ was found to be significantly associated with asthma admission in the > 65 group, with percentage increase in cardiac admission of 25% (95% CI: 2.8–52.3%) and 26.0% (95% CI: 5.3–50.9%) for current day and 2‐day means, respectively.

Keywords:

• Air pollution
• Cardiac disease
• Respiratory disease
• London, Ontario
• Hospital admissions

Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by an NSERC operating grant to K. Fung, a University of Windsor/SSHRC grant to I. Luginaah, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research investigator award to K. Gorey and an associated partnership appointment to I. Luginaah. We would like to thank Melynda Bitzos from the Air Quality Analysis & Reporting Environmental Monitoring Branch, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, for providing us with the data.