2014 Soccer World Cup in São Paulo: effects on air quality and health

Abstract

Introduction World Cup soccer matches are one of the most important mass sports events in the planet. In Brazil, 2014 World Cup encouraged mobility of travelers to host cities. The city of São Paulo built one of the biggest stadiums, which hosted matches from June 12 to July 13, 2014. Objective To analyze impacts of 2014 Soccer World Cup on air pollution and on mortality of people over 65, in São Paulo. Some actions to ease mobility could serve as lab for air pollution control. Methods Time series analysis on the months of May, June, July and August of the previous two years, and of 2014. Average daily data of pollutants: PM10, NO2 and Ozone from one CETESB monitoring station per area of the city. Data for respiratory, circulatory and diabetes mortality of elderly over 65 during the studied period were grouped on a daily basis, i.e., daily count of the deaths by causes. To these were aggregated pollutant and meteorological variables and variables indicative of match days and holidays, week days of May, June, July and August of 2012, 2013 and 2014. The analysis consisted of time series using general additive models (GAM) in Poisson regression with dispersion adjustment. Results Descriptive statistics showed daily respiratory, cardiovascular and diabetes mortality were higher for São Paulo game days in comparison with 2014 World Cup period, but not in comparison with 2012 and 2013 for cardiovascular mortality. PM10 and NO2 had lower concentrations in São Paulo game days in comparison with 2014 World Cup period. Relative risks of dead from respiratory, cardiovascular and diabetes mellitus diseases on elderly (people with 65 years or more) for cardiovascular disease deaths the three pollutants had statistical significant relative risks, but for respiratory and diabetes deaths relative risks were not significant. Conclusions