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Abstract
Background: Much of the evidence on the health effects of airborne particles is based on mortality and hospital admissions, while the evidence from other morbidity indicators is still limited.
Objective: To measure the relationship between particles with diameter below 10 μm (PM10) and emergency ambulance dispatches (EAD).
Methods: Daily EAD for six towns of the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy) were obtained from a database collecting real-time data. Time series analyses were performed, and city-specific estimates were combined using meta-analytic techniques.
Results: We found a significant percentage change of EAD associated with a 10 μg/m3 increase of PM10 for non-traumatic diseases (0·86%, 95%CI: 0·61,1·1%). A positive relationship was also found for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases without reaching statistical significance. The risks were much higher in the warm (April–September) than in the cold season (January–March and October–December).
Conclusions: Emergency ambulance dispatches provide useful insight into the health effects of air pollution and may be useful to establish surveillance systems.
The authors thank the medical and data processing staff at Emergency Ambulance Services for their valuable suggestions and for providing the EAD data and all people dealing with air pollution and meteorological monitoring networks.
Competing interests: None declared.
Funding: This study was funded by a grant from the Regional Authority of Emilia-Romagna (Italy) (DGR 2031). The researchers are independent of the funders. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not of the funding body.