Short-term associations between emergency hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular disease and outdoor air pollution in London

There are concerns about the possible short-term effects of outdoor air pol lution on health in the United Kingdom. In a study conducted during the tim e period between 1987 and 1992, investigators determined that ozone had sma ll, hut significant effects on emergency respiratory admissions. In the cur rent study, the authors investigated associations between emergency admissi ons and outdoor air pollution for the time period from 1992 to 1994, inclus ive, and compared the results with those obtained in the earlier study. The authors also examined particulate matter less than 10 mu m in diameter (PM 10) and carbon monoxide in the current study. Appropriate confounding facto rs, such as seasonal patterns, temperature, and humidity, were controlled f or, and the authors used Poisson regression to estimate the association bet ween daily emergency admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, particles me asured as Black Smoke, and PM10. Significant positive associations were fou nd between emergency hospital admissions for respiratory disease and PM10 a nd sulfur dioxide, but such an association did not exist for ozone. The res ults were not significantly different from earlier results from London and were comparable with those determined in North America and Europe. Cardiova scular disease was associated with carbon monoxide and Black Smoke, but wea ker associations existed with the other pollutants studied.