Application of Neural Net Model to Estimate the Cardiovascular and Respiratory Diseases by Air Pollution Data in Urban Area

Abstract

One of the major environmental problems is air pollution that has important effects on human health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is the eighth cause of death and is the main environmental risk factor in Europe. Air pollution depends by number and diversity of emission sources and concomitant risk factors that took into account meteorology that plays an inferential action on adverse effects of pollution in term of space-time. Such situations are very important especially for the Mediterranean coastal countries (like Italy) and for urban sites that are affected by the microclimatic conditions that could lead to atmospheric stagnation events. In recent years, a broad number of scientific studies have shown that the linkage between urban settlements with high population density and large industrial centers resulted worsening of air pollution due to the impact resulting from intensive traffic, from domestic heating and from industrial and energy plants. Severe cases of pollution, which have had important impacts on the population, have occurred in urban or industrial areas and this in conjunction with unfavorable atmospheric dispersion and dilution of air pollutants. Air pollution is a set of pollutants, many of which are correlated to each other. In this work, we will focus only on the particulate matter (PM10) and ground-level ozone (O3) [Gariazzo et al., 2007],that in general have been identified as two of the most important air pollutants for Europe [Jol and Kielland, 1997]; [Brunekreef and Holgate, 2002]. Particulate Matters (PM) are tiny particles of solid or liquid suspended. They range in size from 0.1 nanometers to 100 micrometers in diameter. PM10 can be either primary or secondary, in nature. In general, primary particles are emitted directly into the atmosphere by natural and anthropogenic sources, whereas secondary particles are formed in the atmosphere from chemical and physical reactions of SO2, NOx, NH3 and VOC. The PM10 composition depends on the source of emission. The PM10, being rich in biologically active substances, contains inside carcinogens substances (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds), elemental carbon, heavy metals, mineral dust, fragments of soil, sulfates and nitrates that can have an irritating action, ammonium. In the atmosphere, particulate concentrations depend on both natural sources (soil erosion, marine aerosol,