Association of emergency room visits for respiratory diseases with sources of ambient PM2.5

Rui Chi; Hongyu Li; Qian Wang; Qiangrong Zhai; Daidai Wang; Meng Wu; Qichen Liu; Shaowei Wu; Qingbian Ma; Furong Deng; Xinbiao Guo

doi:10.1016/j.jes.2019.05.015

Association of emergency room visits for respiratory diseases with sources of ambient PM_2.5

J Environ Sci (China). 2019 Dec:86:154-163. doi: 10.1016/j.jes.2019.05.015. Epub 2019 May 22.

Authors

Rui Chi¹, Hongyu Li¹, Qian Wang², Qiangrong Zhai³, Daidai Wang³, Meng Wu³, Qichen Liu⁴, Shaowei Wu¹, Qingbian Ma⁵, Furong Deng¹, Xinbiao Guo⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China.
² Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, Beijing 100012, China.
³ Emergency Department, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China.
⁴ Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100013, China.
⁵ Emergency Department, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China. Electronic address: maqingbian@bjmu.edu.cn.
⁶ Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China. Electronic address: guoxb@bjmu.edu.cn.

PMID: 31787180
DOI: 10.1016/j.jes.2019.05.015

Abstract

Previous studies have reported associations of short-term exposure to different sources of ambient fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) and increased mortality or hospitalizations for respiratory diseases. Few studies, however, have focused on the short-term effects of source-specific PM_2.5 on emergency room visits (ERVs) of respiratory diseases. Source apportionment for PM_2.5 was performed with Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) and generalized additive model was applied to estimate associations between source-specific PM_2.5 and respiratory disease ERVs. The association of PM_2.5 and total respiratory ERVs was found on lag4 (RR = 1.011, 95%CI: 1.002, 1.020) per interquartile range (76 μg/m³) increase. We found PM_2.5 to be significantly associated with asthma, bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) ERVs, with the strongest effects on lag5 (RR = 1.072, 95%CI: 1.024, 1.119), lag4 (RR = 1.104, 95%CI: 1.032, 1.176) and lag3 (RR = 1.091, 95%CI: 1.047, 1.135), respectively. The estimated effects of PM_2.5 changed little after adjusting for different air pollutants. Six primary PM_2.5 sources were identified using PMF analysis, including dust/soil (6.7%), industry emission (4.5%), secondary aerosols (30.3%), metal processing (3.2%), coal combustion (37.5%) and traffic-related source (17.8%). Some of the sources were identified to have effects on ERVs of total respiratory diseases (dust/soil, secondary aerosols, metal processing, coal combustion and traffic-related source), bronchitis ERVs (dust/soil) and COPD ERVs (traffic-related source, industry emission and secondary aerosols). Different sources of PM_2.5 contribute to increased risk of respiratory ERVs to different extents, which may provide potential implications for the decision making of air quality related policies, rational emission control and public health welfare.

Keywords: Emergency room visits; PM(2.5); Respiratory diseases; Source apportionment.

MeSH terms

Air Pollution / statistics & numerical data*
Emergency Service, Hospital
Environmental Exposure / statistics & numerical data*
Humans
Particulate Matter / analysis*
Respiratory Tract Diseases / epidemiology*

Substances

Particulate Matter