Acute Effects of Ambient PM 2.5 on All-Cause and Cause-Specific Emergency Ambulance Dispatches in Japan

Vera Ling Hui Phung, Kayo Ueda, Shunji Kasaoka, Xerxes Seposo, Saira Tasmin, Shinichi Yonemochi, Arthit Phosri, Akiko Honda, Hirohisa Takano, Takehiro Michikawa and Hiroshi Nitta
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Vera Ling Hui Phung: Department of Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8540, Japan
Kayo Ueda: Department of Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8540, Japan
Shunji Kasaoka: Emergency and General Medicine, Kumamoto University Hospital, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan
Xerxes Seposo: Department of Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8540, Japan
Saira Tasmin: Department of Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8540, Japan
Shinichi Yonemochi: Center for Environmental Science in Saitama, Kazo, Saitama 347-0115, Japan
Arthit Phosri: Department of Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8540, Japan
Akiko Honda: Department of Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8540, Japan
Hirohisa Takano: Department of Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8540, Japan
Takehiro Michikawa: Center for Health and Environmental Risk Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan
Hiroshi Nitta: Center for Health and Environmental Risk Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: Short-term health effects of ambient PM 2.5 have been established with numerous studies, but evidence in Asian countries is limited. This study aimed to investigate the short-term effects of PM 2.5 on acute health outcomes, particularly all-cause, cardiovascular, respiratory, cerebrovascular and neuropsychological outcomes. We utilized daily emergency ambulance dispatches (EAD) data from eight Japanese cities (2007–2011). Statistical analyses included two stages: (1) City-level generalized linear model with Poisson distribution; (2) Random-effects meta-analysis in pooling city-specific effect estimates. Lag patterns were explored using (1) unconstrained-distributed lags (lag 0 to lag 7) and (2) average lags (lag: 0–1, 0–3, 0–5, 0–7). In all-cause EAD, significant increases were observed in both shorter lag (lag 0: 1.24% (95% CI: 0.92, 1.56)) and average lag 0–1 (0.64% (95% CI: 0.23, 1.06)). Increases of 1.88% and 1.48% in respiratory and neuropsychological EAD outcomes, respectively, were observed at lag 0 per 10 µg/m 3 increase in PM 2.5 . While respiratory outcomes demonstrated significant average effects, no significant effect was observed for cardiovascular outcomes. Meanwhile, an inverse association was observed in cerebrovascular outcomes. In this study, we observed that effects of PM 2.5 on all-cause, respiratory and neuropsychological EAD were acute, with average effects not exceeding 3 days prior to EAD onset.

Keywords: air pollution; ambient PM 2.5; emergency ambulance dispatches; short-term exposure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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