THE SHORT-TERM EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION ON MORTALITY

Abstract

This poster complements the paper in this area (A description of the SPIRT study for Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney: Simpson et al) and details all the results referred in summary in the paper on the short-term health effects of air pollution on daily mortality (total, cardiovascular, respiratory) in four Australian cities–Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. These studies used a protocol similar to that used in Europe (Air Pollution and Health: A European Approach-APHEA) to examine the associations between daily mortality and air pollutants. The poster details all the results of a meta-analysis for the four cities for the acute health impacts of the pollutants–fine particles, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone-on daily mortality (total, cardiovascular, respiratory) for the period 1996 to 1999. The meta-analyses often show significant heterogeneity in the results indicating differences between the cities. Fine particles (as measured by nephelometery) have a significant impact on mortality (especially cardiovascular); nitrogen dioxide has a significant impact on mortality (both cardiovascular and respiratory), and ozone has a significant impact on respiratory mortality. The sensitivity of the results to different statistical methods used in the meta-analyses have been carried out using a combination of three approaches: generalised additive models (GAM) using the S Plus statistical package and loess smoothing, generalised additive models using the S Plus package and natural splines, and penalised splines using the R statistical package.