Conference Paper: Daily visibility and mortality: assessment of health benefits from improving visibility in Hong Kong

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TitleDaily visibility and mortality: assessment of health benefits from improving visibility in Hong Kong
AuthorsThach, TQ
Wong, CM
Chan, KP
Chau, YK
Chung, YN
Ou, CQ
Yang, L
Hedley, AJ
Issue Date2011
PublisherLippincott Williams & Wilkins. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.epidem.com
CitationThe 22nd Joint Conference of International Society of Exposure Science & International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISES-ISEE 2010), Seoul, Korea, 28 August-1 September 2010. In Epidemiology, 2011, v. 22 January suppl., p. S224 [How to Cite?]
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.ede.0000392374.77978.64
AbstractBackground/Aims: Visibility in Hong Kong has deteriorated significantly over 40 years with the frequency of visibility below 8 km in the absence of fog, mist, or precipitation, increasing from 6.6 days in 1968 to 54.1 days in 2007. Methods: During 1996–2006, we obtained mortality data for all natural and cardiorespiratory causes, visibility recorded as visual range in kilometers, temperature and relative humidity from an urban observatory, and concentrations of 4 criteria pollutants. A generalized additive Poisson regression model with penalized cubic regression splines was fitted to control for time–varying covariates. Results: For all natural causes of mortality an interquartile range of 6.5 km increase in visibility at lag 0–1 days was associated with an excess risk (ER%) (95% Confidence Interval) of -1.13 [-1.76, -0.49] for all ages and -1.37 [-2.09, -0.65] for ages 65+; for cardiovascular mortality of -1.31 [-2.49, -0.13] for all ages, and -1.72 [-3.00, -0.44] for ages 65+; for respiratory mortality of -1.92 [-3.35, -0.49] for all ages and -1.76 [-3.25, -0.28] for ages 65+. The estimated ER% for daily mortality derived from both visibility and air pollutant data were comparable in terms of magnitude, lag pattern, and dose-response relationships especially when using particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <=10 µm to predict mortality associated with visibility. Conclusion: Visibility provides a useful proxy for the assessment of environmental health risks from ambient air pollutants and a valid approach for the assessment of the public health impacts of air pollution and the benefits of air quality improvement measures in developing countries where pollutant monitoring data are scarce.
DescriptionThis journal suppl. is conference proceedings of ISES-ISEE 2010
Poster
ISSN1044-3983
2011 Impact Factor: 5.566
2011 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.381
DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.ede.0000392374.77978.64
ISI Accession Number IDWOS:000285400800682
DC Field
Value
dc.contributor.authorThach, TQ
dc.contributor.authorWong, CM
dc.contributor.authorChan, KP
dc.contributor.authorChau, YK
dc.contributor.authorChung, YN
dc.contributor.authorOu, CQ
dc.contributor.authorYang, L
dc.contributor.authorHedley, AJ
dc.date.accessioned2011-07-15T03:07:51Z
dc.date.available2011-07-15T03:07:51Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.description.abstractBackground/Aims: Visibility in Hong Kong has deteriorated significantly over 40 years with the frequency of visibility below 8 km in the absence of fog, mist, or precipitation, increasing from 6.6 days in 1968 to 54.1 days in 2007. Methods: During 1996–2006, we obtained mortality data for all natural and cardiorespiratory causes, visibility recorded as visual range in kilometers, temperature and relative humidity from an urban observatory, and concentrations of 4 criteria pollutants. A generalized additive Poisson regression model with penalized cubic regression splines was fitted to control for time–varying covariates. Results: For all natural causes of mortality an interquartile range of 6.5 km increase in visibility at lag 0–1 days was associated with an excess risk (ER%) (95% Confidence Interval) of -1.13 [-1.76, -0.49] for all ages and -1.37 [-2.09, -0.65] for ages 65+; for cardiovascular mortality of -1.31 [-2.49, -0.13] for all ages, and -1.72 [-3.00, -0.44] for ages 65+; for respiratory mortality of -1.92 [-3.35, -0.49] for all ages and -1.76 [-3.25, -0.28] for ages 65+. The estimated ER% for daily mortality derived from both visibility and air pollutant data were comparable in terms of magnitude, lag pattern, and dose-response relationships especially when using particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <=10 µm to predict mortality associated with visibility. Conclusion: Visibility provides a useful proxy for the assessment of environmental health risks from ambient air pollutants and a valid approach for the assessment of the public health impacts of air pollution and the benefits of air quality improvement measures in developing countries where pollutant monitoring data are scarce.
dc.descriptionThis journal suppl. is conference proceedings of ISES-ISEE 2010
dc.descriptionPoster
dc.description.otherThe 22nd Joint Conference of International Society of Exposure Science & International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISES-ISEE 2010), Seoul, Korea, 28 August-1 September 2010. In Epidemiology, 2011, v. 22 January suppl., p. S224
dc.identifier.citationThe 22nd Joint Conference of International Society of Exposure Science & International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISES-ISEE 2010), Seoul, Korea, 28 August-1 September 2010. In Epidemiology, 2011, v. 22 January suppl., p. S224 [How to Cite?]
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.ede.0000392374.77978.64
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.ede.0000392374.77978.64
dc.identifier.epageS224
dc.identifier.hkuros184324
dc.identifier.hkuros186196
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000285400800682
dc.identifier.issn1044-3983
2011 Impact Factor: 5.566
2011 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.381
dc.identifier.openurl
dc.identifier.spageS224
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/134769
dc.identifier.volume22
dc.languageeng
dc.publisherLippincott Williams & Wilkins. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.epidem.com
dc.relation.ispartofEpidemiology
dc.titleDaily visibility and mortality: assessment of health benefits from improving visibility in Hong Kong
dc.typeConference_Paper