Impact of air pollution and climate on a pediatric emergency department visits in Buenos Aires City
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31053/1853.0605.v74.n4.17495Keywords:
air pollution, climate, environment and public healthAbstract
Objective: to evaluate the impact of air pollution and weather changes on the number of visits to a pediatric emergency department in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Materials and methods: we designed an ecological time-series study using generalized additive models (GAM) for the period 2012-2014. The outcome variable was the number of daily visits to a pediatric emergency department taking into account daily consultations. The potential predictors were the average daily air pollution levels (carbon monoxide -CO-, nitrogen dioxide -NO2-, particulate matter 10 microns or less in diameter -PM10-) and weather variables (temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and rainfall) and we controlled by weekday and long-time trend. Results: the number of visits during the winter months (286 daily) was significantly higher than those in the other seasons (p <0.0001). The change in air pollution levels did not show a significant and consistent correlation with the visits. Temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, and wind speed and direction were not significant variables for any of the examined lags. Conclusions: Considering the population and variables of our study, air pollution does not affect the health outcomes, as does seasonal epidemics. Studies that examine other health variables are necessary to establish the impact of air pollution on children’s health in Buenos Aires.
Downloads
References
Ostro B, Prüss-Üstün A, Campbell-Lendrum D, Corvalán C, Woodward A. Outdoor air pollution Assessing the environmental burden of disease at national and local levels WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. Geneve; 2004.
Pruss-Ustun A, Corvalan C. PREVENTING DISEASE THROUGH HEALTHY ENVIROMENTS. Towards an estimate of the enviromental burden of disease. World Heal Organ. 2006;12(2):1–106.
Bono R, Romanazzi V, Bellisario V, Tassinari R, Trucco G, Urbino A, et al. Air pollution, aeroallergens and admissions to pediatric emergency room for respiratory reasons in Turin, northwestern Italy. BMC Public Health. 2016 Dec 5;16(1):722.
Abrutzky R, Dawidowski L, Matus P, Lankao PR. Health Effects of Climate and Air Pollution in Buenos Aires: A First Time Series Analysis *. J Environ Prot (Irvine, Calif). 2012;3:262–71.
Abrutzky R, Ibarra S, Matus P, Lankao PR, Pereyra V, Dawidowski L. Atmospheric pollution and mortality. A comparative study between two Latin American cities: Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Santiago (Chile). Int J Environ Heal. 2013;6(4):363.
Bernstein AS, Rice MB. Lungs in a warming world: climate change and respiratory health. Chest. 2013 May;143(5):1455–9.
du Prel J, Puppe W, Gröndahl B, Knuf M, Weigl JAI, Schaaff F, et al. Are Meteorological Parameters Associated with Acute Respiratory Tract Infections? Clin Infect Dis. 2009 Sep 15;49(6):861–8.
Xu Z, Etzel RA, Su H, Huang C, Guo Y, Tong S. Impact of ambient temperature on children’s health: a systematic review. Environ Res. 2012 Aug;117:120–31.
Bloom-Feshbach K, Alonso WJ, Charu V, Tamerius J, Simonsen L, Miller MA, et al. Latitudinal variations in seasonal activity of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV): a global comparative review. Cowling BJ, editor. PLoS One. 2013 Feb 14;8(2):e54445.
Largeron Y, Staquet C. Persistent inversion dynamics and wintertime PM10 air pollution in Alpine valleys. Atmos Environ. 2016;135:92–108.
Nawrot TS, Torfs R, Fierens F, De Henauw S, Hoet PH, Van Kersschaever G, et al. Stronger associations between daily mortality and fine particulate air pollution in summer than in winter: evidence from a heavily polluted region in western Europe. J Epidemiol Community Heal. 2007 Feb 1;61(2):146–9.
Figuerola PI, Mazzeo NA. Urban-rural temperature differences in Buenos Aires. Int J Climatol. 1998 Dec;18(15):1709–23.
Sanhueza PA, Torreblanca MA, Diaz-Robles LA, Schiappacasse LN, Silva MP, Astete TD. Particulate air pollution and health effects for cardiovascular and respiratory causes in Temuco, Chile: a wood-smoke-polluted urban area. J Air Waste Manag Assoc. 2009 Dec;59(12):1481–8.
Neuberger M, Moshammer H, Rabczenko D. Acute and subacute effects of urban air pollution on cardiopulmonary emergencies and mortality: time series studies in Austrian cities. Int J Environ Res Public Health. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI); 2013 Oct 2;10(10):4728–51.
Peng RD, Dominici F, Louis TA. Model choice in time series studies of air pollution and mortality. J R Stat Soc Ser A (Statistics Soc. Blackwell Publishing Ltd; 2006 Mar;169(2):179–203.
Hastie T, Tibshirani R. Generalized additive models. Chapman & Hall/CRC; 1999. 335 p.
Lin H, Liu T, Xiao J, Zeng W, Li X, Guo L, et al. Mortality burden of ambient fine particulate air pollution in six Chinese cities: Results from the Pearl River Delta study. Environ Int. 2016 Nov;96:91–7.
Brunekreef B, Holgate ST. Air pollution and health. Lancet. 2002 Oct 19;360(9341):1233–42.
Kurt OK, Zhang J, Pinkerton KE. Pulmonary health effects of air pollution. Curr Opin Pulm Med. 2016 Mar;22(2):138–43.
Ben-Isaac E, Schrager SM, Keefer M, Chen AY. National Profile of Nonemergent Pediatric Emergency Department Visits. Pediatrics. 2010 Mar 1;125(3):454–9.
Dirección de Estadísticas e Información de Salud. Egresos de Establecimientos Oficiales por diagnóstico -Año 2013. Buenos Aires; 2013.
HEI Collaborative Working Group on Air Pollution, Poverty, and Health in Ho Chi Minh City, Le TG, Ngo L, Mehta S, Do VD, Thach TQ, et al. Effects of short-term exposure to air pollution on hospital admissions of young children for acute lower respiratory infections in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Res Rep Health Eff Inst. 2012 Jun;(169):5-72-83.
Karr CJ, Demers PA, Koehoorn MW, Lencar CC, Tamburic L, Brauer M. Influence of Ambient Air Pollutant Sources on Clinical Encounters for Infant Bronchiolitis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2009 Nov 15;180(10):995–1001.
Bourgeois FT, Valim C, Wei JC, McAdam AJ, Mandl KD. Influenza and Other Respiratory Virus-Related Emergency Department Visits Among Young Children. Pediatrics. 2006 Jul 1;118(1):e1–8.
Nair H, Nokes DJ, Gessner BD, Dherani M, Madhi SA, Singleton RJ, et al. Global burden of acute lower respiratory infections due to respiratory syncytial virus in young children: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2010 May 1;375(9725):1545–55.
Green CA, Yeates D, Goldacre A, Sande C, Parslow RC, McShane P, et al. Admission to hospital for bronchiolitis in England: trends over five decades, geographical variation and association with perinatal characteristics and subsequent asthma. Arch Dis Child. 2016 Feb;101(2):140–6.
Ferrero F, Torres F, Abrutzky R, Ossorio MF, Marcos A, Ferrario C, et al. Seasonality of respiratory syncytial virus in Buenos Aires. Relationship with global climate change. Arch Argent Pediatr. 2016 Feb 1;114(1):52–5.
Bogo H, Negri RM, Román ES. Continuous measurement of gaseous pollutants in Buenos Aires city. Atmos Environ. 1999 Jul;33(16):2587–98.
Bogo H, Gómez DR, Reich SL, Negri RM, San Román E. Traffic pollution in a downtown site of Buenos Aires City. Atmos Environ. 2001 Apr;35(10):1717–27.
D’Angiola A, Dawidowski LE, Gómez DR, Osses M. On-road traffic emissions in a megacity. Atmos Environ. 2010 Feb;44(4):483–93.
Sedgwick P. Ecological studies: advantages and disadvantages. BMJ. 2014 May 2;348:g2979.
Lee HJ, Jin MH, Lee JH. The association of weather on pediatric emergency department visits in Changwon, Korea (2005–2014). Sci Total Environ. 2016 May 1;551–552:699–705.
Downloads
Additional Files
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The Faculty of Medical Sciences Journal (RFCM) subscribes to the Open Access policy and does not charge authors fees for publishing, nor does it charge readers fees for accessing published articles (APC).
