Air pollution and health effects in northern Nevada: A ten-year, community-based epidemiological study.

摘要

In this study, the association between ambient air pollution and human health effects in northern Nevada from 1990 through 1999 was examined using community-based epidemiological methodologies. Health effects included in this study were: hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), elementary school absenteeism, birth weight, and premature births. The relationship between PM₁₀ pollution and daily hospital admissions for COPD in Reno-Sparks, Nevada, for the period 1990–1994 was assessed by use of the generalized additive model (GAM) only. A total of 3116 admissions for COPD during this period were included. After adjusting for the effects of weather variables, day-of-week, seasons and time trend, PM₁₀ was found to be a statistically significant predictor of daily hospital admissions for COPD. This association was assessed further by two powerful statistical regression models, GAM, and autogressive integrated moving average (ARIMA). A positive relationship between ambient PM₁₀ concentrations and hospital admissions for COPD was consistently found by both GAM and ARIMA methods.; The effects of air pollution on elementary school absenteeism in Washoe County, NV, between 1996 and 1998 were also investigated. All 57 elementary schools in Washoe County were included. A total of 27,793 student enrollments during this study period were observed. CO and O₃ were significantly related with daily elementary school absenteeism by autoregression analysis.; Two studies regarding the association between air pollution and birth weight and premature birth from 1991 through 1999 were conducted. All singleton live births delivered between 1991 and 1999 in Reno-Sparks, NV were included in these two studies. After controlling for various confounding factors, results from multiple linear regression showed that PM₁₀ exposure in the third trimester of pregnancy was a significant predictor of birth weight of newborns; however, the current ambient levels of PM₁₀ CO, and O₃ in northern Nevada are not risk factors to increase the chance of low birth weight (LBW) newborns from multiple logistic regression. Additionally, air pollutants were not associated with lengths of gestation or premature births.; In sum, air pollution levels in northern Nevada, even far below the current federal standards, are associated with hospital admissions for COPD, elementary school absenteeism, and birth weight reduction; however, air pollutants are not related with LBW and premature births.