Acute asthma exacerbations and air pollutants in children living in Belfast, Northern Ireland

The incidence of childhood asthma, a common condition, is on the rise world wide. Despite reductions in the emission of urban smoke, traffic pollution is now a major worldwide problem. Belfast, Northern Ireland, is an old indu strial city with major pollution problems. In this study, the authors inves tigated the rates of acute asthma admissions to Belfast's major children's emergency department. The admissions were studied, relative to day-to-day f luctuations in thoracic particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxid e, nitric oxide, oxides of nitrogen, ozone, carbon monoxide, benzene, tempe rature, and rainfall. Daily admissions for acute asthma at the emergency de partment of the Royal Belfast Hospital and average daily pollution were rec orded for the 3-yr period between January 1, 1993, and December 31, 1995. T he authors used Poisson regression to assess independent association(s). In dividually, small associations were seen for thoracic particulate matter (r elative risk = 1.10), sulfur dioxide (relative risk = 1.09), nitrogen dioxi de (relative risk = 1.11), nitric oxide (relative risk = 1.07), oxides of n itrogen (relative risk = 1.10), carbon monoxide (relative risk = 1.07), and benzene (1.14); no associations were noted between meteorological factors (temperature and rainfall) or ozone and asthma emergency-department admissi ons. The authors adjusted for the aforementioned parameters, and benzene le vel was the only variable associated independently with asthma emergency-de partment admissions in children. Benzene may be a more reliable method of m easuring exposure to vehicle exhaust emissions than measurements of other p ollutants.