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Yun-Chul Hong,¹ Jong-Han Leem,¹ Eun-Hee Ha,² and David C. Christiani³

¹Department of Preventive Medicine, Inha University College of Medicine, Inchon, South Korea
²Department of Preventive Medicine, Ewha Women's University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
³Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Abstract

To evaluate the relative importance of various measures of particulate and gaseous air pollution as predictors of daily mortality in Inchon, South Korea, the association between total daily mortality and air pollution was investigated for a 20-month period (January 1995 through August 1996) . Poisson regression was used to regress daily death counts on each air pollutant, controlling for time trends, season, and meteorologic influences such as temperature and relative humidity. Regression coefficients of a 5-day moving average of particulate matter 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM₁₀) on total mortality were positively significant when considered separately and simultaneously with other pollutants in the model. PM₁₀ remained significant when the models were confined to cardiovascular or respiratory mortality. Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and carbon monoxide (CO) were significantly related to respiratory mortality in the single-pollutant model. Ozone exposure was not statistically significant with regard to mortality in the above models, and graphic analysis showed that the relationship was nonlinear. A combined index of PM₁₀, nitrogen dioxide, SO₂, and CO seemed to better explain the exposure-response relationship with total mortality than an individual air pollutant. Pollutants should be considered together in the risk assessment of air pollution, as opposed to measuring the risk of individual pollutants. Key words: air pollution, carbon monoxide, cardiovascular, mortality, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, respiratory, sulfur dioxide, PM₁₀. Environ Health Perspect 107:873-878 (1999) . [Online 5 October 1999]

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1999/107p873-878hong/ abstract.html

Address correspondence to Y-C. Hong, Department of Preventive Medicine, Inha University College of Medicine, 253 Yonghyun-Dong, Nam-Gu, Inchon, 402-751, South Korea. Telephone: 82 32 890 2860. Fax: 82 32 890 2859. E-mail: ychong@dragon.inha.ac.kr

This work was supported by the Inha University Research Fund, 1998.

Received 20 April 1999 ; accepted 22 June 1999.