Associations of PM 2.5 and Black Carbon with Hospital Emergency Room Visits during Heavy Haze Events: A Case Study in Beijing, China

Fengchao Liang, Lin Tian, Qun Guo, Dane Westerdahl, Yang Liu, Xiaobin Jin, Guoxing Li and Xiaochuan Pan
Additional contact information
Fengchao Liang: Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
Lin Tian: Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
Qun Guo: Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
Dane Westerdahl: School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Yang Liu: Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Xiaobin Jin: Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
Guoxing Li: Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
Xiaochuan Pan: Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: In January 2013, severe haze events over northeastern China sparked substantial health concerns. This study explores the associations of fine particulate matter less than 2.5 ?m (PM 2.5 ) and black carbon (BC) with hospital emergency room visits (ERVs) during a haze season in Beijing. During that period, daily counts of ERVs for respiratory, cardiovascular and ocular diseases were obtained from a Level-3A hospital in Beijing from 1 December 2012 to 28 February 2013, and associations of which with PM 2.5 and BC were estimated by time-stratified case-crossover analysis in single- and two-pollutant models. We found a 27.5% (95% confidence interval (CI): 13.0, 43.9%) increase in respiratory ERV (lag02), a 19.4% (95% CI: 2.5, 39.0%) increase in cardiovascular ERV (lag0), and a 12.6% (95% CI: 0.0, 26.7%) increase in ocular ERV (lag0) along with an interquartile range (IQR) increase in the PM 2.5 . An IQR increase of BC was associated with 27.6% (95% CI: 9.6, 48.6%) (lag02), 18.8% (95% CI: 1.4, 39.2%) (lag0) and 11.8% (95% CI: ?1.4, 26.8%) (lag0) increases for changes in these same health outcomes respectively. Estimated associations were consistent after adjusting SO 2 or NO 2 in two-pollutant models. This study provides evidence that improving air quality and reducing haze days would greatly benefit the population health.

Keywords: haze; PM 2.5; BC; emergency room visits; population health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/725/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/725/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:7:p:725-:d:103745

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().