Abstract
Numerous studies have revealed an association between particulate matter (PM) and emergency room (ER) visits, although few studies have investigated the association between health and PM components. The present study evaluated the associations of ER visits for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases with PM2.5 components, including organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), and ion species (SO42-, NO3-, and NH4+). Statistical analyses were performed using the time-series approach, and generalized linear models with natural spline functions were used to adjust for the non-linear relationship between the confounders and ER visits. Our single-pollutant models revealed that the greatest increase in cardiovascular ER visits was associated with NH4+ (relative risk: 1.05; 95% confidence interval: 1.01–1.09), which was followed by OC, SO42-, NO3-, and EC. The associations of cardiovascular ER visits with EC and OC varied according to age and sex, with elderly and female patients exhibiting stronger associations. Lagged SO42- was associated with respiratory ER visits. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the associations between ER visits and PM components in South Korea. As PM components are related to traffic and industrial sources, and exhibited positive associations with ER visits, our results may help improve air pollution regulation and public health.
Highlights
Concerns regarding the health effects of air pollutants have been increasing, and several studies have revealed that adverse health effects are related to increasing concentrations of particulate matter (PM) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Our findings indicate that PMs and their components were more positively associated with emergency room (ER) visits for cardiovascular disease, compared to those for respiratory disease, and these findings were consistent with findings from previous studies [21, 28, 37]
Our analyses revealed that PM2.5 mass and PM2.5 components were associated with cardiovascular ER visits, with the strongest association observed for NH4+
Summary
Concerns regarding the health effects of air pollutants have been increasing, and several studies have revealed that adverse health effects are related to increasing concentrations of particulate matter (PM) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Previous studies have examined the association between mortality and PM concentrations, and typically showed that mortality increases with greater populationlevel exposure to air pollutants [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. Researchers have demonstrated that emergency room (ER) visits for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases may increase with elevated PM concentrations [17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25]. South Korean studies have revealed an association between PM concentrations and ER visits for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases [26, 27].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
