Study on the Association between Ambient Air Pollution and Daily Cardiovascular and Respiratory Mortality in an Urban District of Beijing

The association between daily cardiovascular/respiratory mortality and air pollution in an urban district of Beijing was investigated over a 6-year period (January 2003 to December 2008). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative importance of the major air pollutants [particulate matter (PM), SO 2 , NO 2 ] as predictors of daily cardiovascular/respiratory mortality. The time-series studied comprises years with lower level interventions to control air pollution (2003–2006) and years with high level interventions in preparation for and during the Olympics/Paralympics (2007–2008). Concentrations of PM 10 , SO 2 , and NO 2 , were measured daily during the study period. A generalized additive model was used to evaluate daily numbers of cardiovascular/ respiratory deaths in relation to each air pollutant, controlling for time trends and meteorological influences such as temperature and relative humidity. The results show that the daily cardiovascular/respiratory death rates were significantly associated with the concentration air pollutants, especially deaths related to cardiovascular disease. The current day effects of PM 10 and NO 2 were higher than that of single lags (distributed lags) and moving average lags for respiratory disease mortality. The largest RR of SO 2 for respiratory disease mortality was in Lag02. For cardiovascular disease mortality, the largest RR was in Lag01 for PM 10 , and in current day (Lag0) for SO 2 and NO 2 . NO 2 was associated with the largest RRs for deaths from both cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease.