title: Associations between ozone and morbidity using the Spatial Synoptic Classification system.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Synoptic circulation patterns (large-scale tropospheric motion systems) affect air pollution and, potentially, air-pollution-morbidity associations. We evaluated the effect of synoptic circulation patterns (air masses) on the association between ozone and hospital admissions for asthma and myocardial infarction (MI) among adults in North Carolina.
  
  
  METHODS
  Daily surface meteorology data (including precipitation, wind speed, and dew point) for five selected cities in North Carolina were obtained from the U.S. EPA Air Quality System (AQS), which were in turn based on data from the National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We used the Spatial Synoptic Classification system to classify each day of the 9-year period from 1996 through 2004 into one of seven different air mass types: dry polar, dry moderate, dry tropical, moist polar, moist moderate, moist tropical, or transitional. Daily 24-hour maximum 1-hour ambient concentrations of ozone were obtained from the AQS. Asthma and MI hospital admissions data for the 9-year period were obtained from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Generalized linear models were used to assess the association of the hospitalizations with ozone concentrations and specific air mass types, using pollutant lags of 0 to 5 days. We examined the effect across cities on days with the same air mass type. In all models we adjusted for dew point and day-of-the-week effects related to hospital admissions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ozone was associated with asthma under dry tropical (1- to 5-day lags), transitional (3- and 4-day lags), and extreme moist tropical (0-day lag) air masses. Ozone was associated with MI only under the extreme moist tropical (5-day lag) air masses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Elevated ozone levels are associated with dry tropical, dry moderate, and moist tropical air masses, with the highest ozone levels being associated with the dry tropical air mass. Certain synoptic circulation patterns/air masses in conjunction with ambient ozone levels were associated with increased asthma and MI hospitalizations.
authors: Institute for the Environment, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. ahanna@unc.edu
authors: Adel F
authors: AF
authors: Hanna
authors: Karin B
authors: KB
authors: Yeatts
authors: Aijun
authors: A
authors: Xiu
authors: Zhengyuan
authors: Z
authors: Zhu
authors: Richard L
authors: RL
authors: Smith
authors: Neil N
authors: NN
authors: Davis
authors: Kevin D
authors: KD
authors: Talgo
authors: Gurmeet
authors: G
authors: Arora
authors: Peter J
authors: PJ
authors: Robinson
authors: Qingyu
authors: Q
authors: Meng
authors: Joseph P
authors: JP
authors: Pinto
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