Ambient air pollution and daily emergency department visits for asthma in Edmonton, Canada

Objectives: As demonstrated by many studies, emergency department (ED) visits for asthma can be associated with air pollution exposures. The aim of this study was to examine and assess the potential relations between ED visits for asthma and the concentrations of ambient air pollutants. Materials and Methods: Generalized linear mixed model was applied to study 62,563 ED visits for asthma (ICD-9: 493) in Edmonton, Canada. Two age groups, with 10 years of age as a separator, were considered by gender and season of the year: all (I-XII), warm (IV-IX) and cold (X-III). Results: The percentage increase in daily ED visits for asthma was 17.8% (95% CI: 7.1-29.5) and 13.8% (95% CI: 3.3-25.3) for females below 10 years of age, in the period of IV-IX, for current day and 1-day lagged exposure to ozone (O-3), respectively. The percentage increase was 19.2% (95% CI: 11.4-27.6) for males below 10 years of age, in the period of IV-IX, for 2-day lagged exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Conclusions: The findings provide support for the hypothesis that ED visits for asthma are associated with exposure to O-3. This study underlines the significant role of air pollutants as triggering asthma attacks.