Urban Ambient Air Pollution and Behavioural Disorders
- DOI
- Language of the publication
- English
- Date
- 2019-07-30
- Type
- Article
- Author(s)
- Szyszkowicz, Mieczysław
- Publisher
- ClinMed International Library
Abstract
Background Environmental exposures, especially in urban areas, have been associated with various health conditions. The body of research suggests that air pollutants might affect human behaviour in the light of their toxicity on the central nervous system. Aims This study investigates the association between ambient air pollution concentration levels and Emergency Department (ED) visits for personality disorders, acute reaction to stress, and disturbance of conduct. Methods Using a health database from Edmonton (Canada), 6,956 such ED visits were identified. A case-crossover design is applied in the study. Conditional Poisson regression method was used to estimate the associations between ED visits and concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Air pollutants, ambient temperature, and relative humidity in the constructed models are lagged by 0 to 5 days. The associations are estimated in the forms of parametric algebraic functions. Results The results show odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals along the concentration levels. Positive and statistically significant results were obtained for the exposure to CO and NO2, lagged from 0 to 4 days. Conclusions The results of present study suggest an impact of urban air pollution on human behaviour.
Plain language summary
Health Canada is responsible for evaluating the health risks posed by ambient air pollution exposure to the Canadian population. Air pollutants may negatively affect different aspects of human health. Various air pollutants are present in the air. Among them are gaseous (carbon monoxide, ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide) and particulate matters (fine and coarse). Polluted ambient air which we respire has potential impacts on human health. To recognise the relationship between the concentration levels of air pollutants in the air and health, the associations between emergency department (ED) visits for behavioural disorders and air pollutants were estimated. The results indicate positive associations between ambient air pollution exposure (measured by the concentration of two air pollutants, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide) and health problems (measured by ED visits). This study determined odds ratio which allows one to assess the effects for various levels of the concentration. These findings are an important contribution to a better understanding of how the degree or intensity of health effects varies with the scale of the air pollutants.This type of information is useful for both risk assessment and risk management relating to the health effects of ambient air pollutants and in developing policies aimed at reducing their health impacts.
Subject
- Health,
- Health and safety