Relationship Between Air Particulate Levels and Upper Respiratory Disease in Soldiers Deployed to Bosnia (1997-1998)

摘要

This study had three objectives: to determine if there is a relationship between air particulate levels and upper respiratory disease in soldiers deployed to Bosnia between 1997-98, to establish a method for linking environmental and military medical data, and to determine ways to improve environmental data collection to improve the ability to analyze the data. Methods: Air particulate level data from the Deployment Environmental Surveillance Program at USACHPPM was linked with Disease Non-Battle Injury Data from the Bosnian theatre. The weekly maximum and weekly average PM 10 levels for each week were determined. The levels were divided into quartiles, and into upper and lower fiftieth percentiles of exposure. The upper respiratory disease (URD) rates were correlated with exposure groups. The exposure groups were also compared for differences in URD rates using the Kniskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. Results: When all camps were combined, there was a statistically significant association between the PM10 Weekly Maximum level and URD rates based on the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests, and the Pearson correlation was statistically significant. Although the relationship was not statistically significant in the analysis conducted of the individual camps, the average URD rate increased with each quartile of PM10 Weekly Maximum exposure. There was no statistically significant association between PM10 Weekly Average exposure and URD rates, although the average URD rate increased with each quartile of PM10 Weekly Average exposure. Conclusion: While a causal link cannot be determined from this study, there does appear to be a relationship between PM 10 levels and URD rates in soldiers deployed to Bosnia in 1997-1998. This contradicts thinking that soldiers are not likely to suffer effects from short term exposure to air particulates. The effects of air particulates on soldiers should be investigated further as more environmental data becomes available.