High Temperatures Enhanced Acute Mortality Effects of Ambient Particle Pollution in the 'Oven' City of Wuhan, China

Autor: Wenshan Liu, Lingli Kong, Zhengmin Qian, Christy M. Bentley, Dunjin Zhou, Hung Mo Lin, Qingci He
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2008
Předmět:
Zdroj: Environmental Health Perspectives
ISSN: 1552-9924
0091-6765
Popis: Extreme temperatures are associated with increased daily mortality in many regions of the world (Patz and Khaliq 2002). Because human activity is likely to increase overall global average temperatures, research efforts have focused on the health effects of exposure to high temperatures and heat waves in summer. In the United States, increased mortality during high-temperature days has been extensively investigated. Semenza et al. (1996) reported that a heat wave in Chicago, Illinois, in 1995 was associated with an increase in the death rate among socially isolated people who had no air conditioning. In studies of multiple U.S. cities, similar results were reported (Curriero et al. 2002). In Europe, excess mortality during high-temperature days has also been noted. Le Tertre et al. (2006) also reported an association between the 2003 heat wave in France and increases in all causes of mortality in nine French cities. Stafoggia et al. (2006) explored vulnerability to heat-related mortality in four Italian cities: Bologna, Milan, Rome, and Turin. The populations particularly vulnerable to high summer temperatures were the elderly, women, widows and widowers, those with particular medical conditions, and those in nursing homes and health care facilities. Air pollution is also associated with increased daily mortality (Pope 2000). A large number of daily mortality time-series analyses have provided sufficiently convincing evidence that nonaccidental mortality, including cardio-pulmonary mortality, is associated with ambient particulate matter (PM) exposure in the United States (Ostro et al. 2007), Canada (Burnett et al. 2000), Rome (Forastiere et al. 2007), China (Kan et al. 2007), Korea (Lee et al. 2000), Greece (Katsouyanni et al. 1997), and Chile (Cakmak et al. 2007). The estimated effect is generally in the range of 1.0–8.0% excess deaths per 50-μg/m3 increments in 24-hr average concentrations of particulate matter ≤ 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) (Schwartz and Zanobetti 2000). Although the independent impacts of high temperature and air pollution on daily mortality have been widely explored, few studies have examined the interaction between high temperature and air pollution (Samet et al. 1998). Investigating the effects of the synergy between air pollution and high temperature on mortality, although desirable, is difficult, because a suitable study site is not easily available. The Chinese city of Wuhan, however, provides an opportunity to examine these synergistic effects; it has been called an “oven” city because of its extremely hot summers. Previous studies in Wuhan (He et al. 1993; Qian et al. 2004) have shown high air pollution levels, with concentration ranges wider than those reported in the published literature for other locations. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that temperature extremes modify the mortality effects of air pollution.
Databáze: OpenAIRE