title: Associations between fine particle, coarse particle, black carbon and hospital visits in a Chinese city.
abstract: China is one of the countries with the highest ambient particle levels in the world; however, there have been no epidemiologic studies examining the effects of fine particle (PM2.5), coarse particle (PM10-2.5) and black carbon (BC) simultaneously on morbidity outcomes. In this study, we conducted a time-series analysis to evaluate the acute effects of PM2.5, PM10-2.5, and BC on daily hospital visits in Shanghai, China. During our study period, the mean daily concentrations of PM2.5, PM10-2.5 and BC were 53.9 μg/m(3), 38.4 μg/m(3) and 3.9 μg/m(3), respectively. We found significant associations of PM2.5, PM 10-2.5, and BC with daily hospital visits. An inter-quartile range increase of the average concentrations of the current and previous days in PM2.5, PM10-2.5 and BC was associated with a 1.88% (95% CI: 0.69% to 3.06%), a 1.30% (95% CI: 0.25% to 2.34%) and a 1.33% (95% CI: 0.34% to 2.32%) increase in emergency-room visits, respectively. For outpatient visits, the corresponding estimated changes were -2.44% (95% CI: -6.62% to 1.74%), 1.09% (95% CI: -2.72% to 4.90%) and 3.34% (95% CI: 0.10% to 6.57%) respectively. The effects of BC were more robust than the effects of PM2.5 and PM10-2.5 in two-pollutant models. To our knowledge, this is the first study in China, or even in Asian developing countries, to report the effect of PM2.5, PM10-2.5, and BC simultaneously on morbidity. Our findings also suggest that BC could serve as a valuable air quality indicator that reflects the health risks of airborne particles.
authors: School of Public Health, Key Lab of Public Health Safety of the Ministry of Education, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Xi
authors: X
authors: Wang
authors: Renjie
authors: R
authors: Chen
authors: Xia
authors: X
authors: Meng
authors: Fuhai
authors: F
authors: Geng
authors: Cuicui
authors: C
authors: Wang
authors: Haidong
authors: H
authors: Kan
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010316:Particle Size; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis*; D053260:Soot / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D052638:Particulate Matter; D053260:Soot